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Christmas movies suggest family-friendly, heartwarming tales, designed for peak holiday family moviegoing. And then there’s the other kind — the late-breaking, high-profile, A-list titles designed to hit the box office and Oscar voters’ consciousness. Some of these launched at prestige fall film festivals (“Downsizing,” “Molly’s Game,” “Hostiles,” “Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool”); others are bonafide awards contenders (Steven Spielberg’s “The Post” and Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread”); and some, like Hugh Jackman vanity musical “The Greatest Showman,” will soon skid into either bad reviews or audience reaction, or both.

Herewith, a ranking of the Christmas movies in order of their likely Oscar prospects.

“The Post” (Fox, December 22)

Metascore: 82.

Strengths: Steven Spielberg’s riveting paean to newspaper journalism and freedom of the press couldn’t be more timely. Early reviews are strong for this true story about The Washington Post’s publication of the Pentagon Papers,...

Director Jonathan Demme, who won an Oscar for directing the 1991 Best Picture winner The Silence of the Lambs, has passed away earlier this morning at the age of 74. According to a source close to the family, the filmmaker passed from esophageal cancer and complications from heart disease. The filmmaker had been treated for esophageal cancer in 2010, and while he did recover, the cancer came back in 2015, and sources said his condition had deteriorated in recent weeks. We have assembled a number of tweets below from filmmakers and actors paying their respects to this iconic director.

IndieWire first broke the news this morning, as tributes have started to flood in from filmmakers such as Edgar Wright, James Wan and actors such as Denis Leary, Michael Chiklis and many more. Jonathan Demme was born February 22, 1944 in Baldwin, Nassau County, New York to Dorothy Louise (Rogers) and Robert Eugene Demme, a public relations executive.

“A Long Day’S Journey Into A Little Night Silence”

By Raymond Benson

Woody’s Allen’s first dramatic feature film, Interiors, released in 1978 on the heels of his hugely successful and Oscar-winning masterpiece, Annie Hall, was met with praise by some and head-scratching by others. Most critics, however, acknowledged that the picture was a step the artist needed to take in his evolution as a filmmaker.

Prior to Annie Hall, Allen’s films were zany comedies—the “early funny ones,” as facetiously described in a later work, Stardust Memories. Beginning with Annie, Allen made a quantum leap forward in originality, confidence, and stylistic maturity. He reinvented the romantic comedy. In many ways, Annie Hall is a movie with a European sensibility. It could be argued that Allen’s body of work post-Annie resembles the kind of material made by a director like, say, Francois Truffaut—small, well-written, intimate gems about people,...

The latest horror flick filled with immense badassery to be added to Shudder's library is the fifth sequel in the Phantasm franchise, Phantasm: Ravager. Also in today's Highlights: details on the Clive Barker Reel Fear Contest, Portland International Film Festival's After Dark program, release details for Slasher.com and The Eyes, a new poster for Atomica, and production news and photos for A Haunting at Silver Falls II.

Phantasm: Ravager Comes to Shudder: "Joining Shudder is Phantasm: Ravager- the final installment of the long-running Phantasm series.

In addition to Phantasm: Ravager, streaming exclusively on Shudder is the remaster of Don Coscarelli’s 1979 classic Phantasm, as well as its sequels Phantasm III and Phantasm IV.

Phantasm was recently restored by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot and Coscarelli, and given both a new 4K remaster and a 5.1 surround sound mix, which will be the version presented exclusively on Shudder."

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Clive Barker Reel...

On Tuesday, it was announced that Fences is up for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress for Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, and Best Adapted Screenplay, which, if it wins, will be posthumously awarded to playwright August Wilson. The American playwright behind Fences and “The Pittsburgh Cycle” -- 10 plays, including Fences, about the black experience set in different decades -- died in 2005 before seeing the play adapted for the screen.

In fact, it took nearly 30 years for the play, which had been optioned by Paramount in the late-‘80s and was originally set to star Eddie Murphy, to finally get released in theaters this past year.

2017 Oscars: Black Actors Nominated in Every Acting Category for First Time in Oscar History

For producer Todd Black, who helped fight to get Wilson’s play adapted to screen, it’s that fourth nomination that’s truly special. “There were challenges...

Will 2017 be the year a superhero movie with fart jokes gets an Oscar nod? Though just about everyone in Hollywood would be surprised to hear “Deadpool” announced as an Academy Award nominee later this month, director Tim Miller’s comic book adaptation has exceeded expectations time and again since its release last February. Few people would have guessed a movie released a week before the 2016 Academy Awards would be part of the Oscar conversation a year later, let alone a long-gestating tale about a superhero obsessed with chimichangas.

Ryan Reynolds’ pet project for nearly a decade, “Deadpool” follows Marvel’s most unconventional anti-hero: Wade Wilson, a former Special Forces operative given superhuman healing powers after a malicious experiment that almost destroys his life. Made for $50 million, the movie grossed nearly $800 million at the worldwide box office, becoming the highest-earning R-rated movie of all time (and the highest-grossing 20th Century Fox...

The Chicago International Film Festival 2016 announced its full lineup, and it includes Julia Ducournau's Raw, the previously announced 4K restoration of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, The Eyes of My Mother, and The Autopsy of Jane Doe, starring Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch.

Press Release: Chicago (September 13, 2016) ­ The Chicago International Film Festival today announces Opening and Closing Night selections, as well as the full slate of films included in the Festival’s U.S. Indies, Spotlight: Musicals and After Dark categories. Chicago will play host to gala screenings of Damien Chazelle’s La La Land and Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival as respective bookends to the 52nd Festival, opening on October 13th and closing on October 27th. A full list of these newly announced programs is below and at www.chicagofilmfestival.com. Tickets for these events and all film screenings go on sale September 21st for Cinema/Chicago members...

Walking into last weekend's Oscars with nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay, the lovely "Brooklyn" went home with nothing to put on the shelf. But it doesn't take away from the film's small, sweet power, and later this month, you'll be able to bring the movie home when it hits DVD and Blu-ray. But a couple teases from the extras have arrived early. Read More: 'Brooklyn' TV Spin-Off Focusing On Julie Walters' Character In The Works A pair of deleted scenes from the picture reveal a couple of small moments snipped from the movie: an extra scene of Saoirse Ronan's Eilis getting some assistance with a new bathing suit, and another with a clearly upset Mrs. Keough, played by Julie Walters. These the kinds of snips that probably wouldn't have added much to John Crowley's finished film, but it's fun to take a look,...

And Just Like That... Academy Award voting has wrapped. So there's nothing left but the big show, the gowns, the accceptance speeches, and the post-mortem frenzy. Which also means February is basically a wrap since the next week is like Brigadoon... only its magic is annual instead of once every 100 years.

15 highlights from Jan/Feb Icymi

• Original Song Ranking all 80 winners of Best Original Song

• Brooklyn TV Bound Why do I keep seeing a Period Facts of Life here with Julie Walters as Mrs Garrett?

• Best Actor It's the Year of the Ham. But how do you like your meat?

• Q&A the popular series returned with a Leonaro DiCaprio episode

• You Can Count on Me the most popular entry in our Sundance retrospective

• Silence of the Lambs a five part baton-pass revisit. Did you enjoy?

• Costume Design Beauty Break the Oscar nominees + 2 Nathaniel favorites

• Podcast Nathaniel & Nick on the...

A closer look at the 2016 Oscar Best Picture nominees, including reactions, reviews, and in-depth features.Oscars 2016‘The Revenant’ leads Oscar race with 12 nomsFull list of nominations

Scott, Spielberg, Sorkin shut out

Nominees’ reactions

Comment: Oscar nominations reward ambition

Galleries: Best Picture; ActorsThe Big Short

Director: Adam McKay

Cast: Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Brad Pit, Ryan Gosling

Synopsis: Based on the 2010 Michael Lewis nonfiction book, this film chronicles the few individuals who predicted the 2008 Us housing market crash- and decided to make a profit off it.

Screen Review: “There are very few heroes in this film, and even the ostensibly good guys are deeply complicated” [Full Review]

Oscar nominations: 5

Categories: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Christian Bale), Best Director (Adam McKay), Best Film Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay

Bridge of Spies

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance

Synopsis: James B. Donovan is a Brooklyn insurance claims lawyer, formerly an Oss counsel and assistant prosecutor at Nuremberg...

“There is one night, we all dream in Gold.”

The Academy has unveiled the new posters and TV spots for the 88th Oscars (Feb. 28, 2016).

The 2016 Oscar campaign illustrates the emotional power of movies and their ability to inspire all of us to achieve our dreams. Movies remind us that imagination is limitless. The Oscar is, at once, a representation of excellence in film and a tangible symbol that dreams can–and do–come true.

“The Dream campaign embodies what people love about the Oscars—the range of emotions and excitement that comes with those unforgettable moments in a live show,” said Christina Kounelias, Academy Cmo. “Fans also look for the comedy and the unexpected, and that’s what they’ll get with our host, Chris Rock. His comedic perspective will be a great complement to the more dramatic moments.”

The deadline for AMPAS voters to have their ballots into the...

Leave it to the Brits! The BAFTA nominations were announced and they gave us a slightly different look at the awards season! For instance, Tom McCarthy's "Spotlight," the leading Oscar contender in the U.S. just received 3 noms including Best Film, Supporting Actor for Mark Ruffalo and Original Screenplay. No Director nomination for McCarthy.

Meanwhile, Steven Spielberg's "Bridge of Spies," a handsomely-produced period piece led the pack along with Todd Haynes' "Carol," another handsomely-produced period piece. Both films garnered nine nominations each including Best Picture. "Bridge of Spies" and "Carol" will duke it out with "Spotlight," Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu's "The Revenant" (eight nominations), and Adam McKay's "The Big Short" (five nominations) for the Best Picture trophy.

So where's "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" you ask? They're relegated to the technical categories. Apparently, sequels, no matter how great they are, can't compete with originals.

As awards show season shifts into high gear, the BAFTA Awards just released the list of hopefuls ahead of the February 14th ceremony at London’s Royal Opera House.

Leading the way with nine nominations each are “Bridge of Spies” and “Carol,” while “The Revenant” scored eight chances for glory.

“Mad Max: Fury Road” has seven nods followed by “Brooklyn” and “The Martian” with six each. Meanwhile, Alicia Vikander was nominated for Best Actress along with Cate Blanchett, Brie Larson, Dame Maggie Smith and Saoirse Ronan.

And the 2016 BAFTA Awards Nominees are…

Best Actor

Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl

Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant

Bryan Cranston, Trumbo

Matt Damon, The Martian

Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs

Best Actress

Cate Blanchett, Carol

Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl

Dame Maggie Smith, The Lady In The Van

Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

Brie Larson, Room

Best Film

Carol

Bridge Of Spies

The Revenant

The Big Short

Spotlight

Supporting Actor

Benicio del Toro,...

Believe it or not, members of the Academy will likely have finalized their nomination decisions by the time you’re reading this. Yes, the deadline for ballots to be in is today, and that’s coming right on the heels of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (or BAFTA) making their nomination announcement in the wee hours. They function almost as an extra guild, as many BAFTA members are in the Academy as well, so it bears referencing. Oscar isn’t going to be able to refer to DGA nominations this year, so I think some voters will look for clues as to what their colleagues support anywhere that they can find it. This might lead to some surprises, for sure, but it also makes things almost impossible to pin down right now. Still, we try. First up, here are the BAFTA nominations: Best Film The Big Short...

On Friday the nominations for the Ee British Academy Film Awards in 2016 were revealed. The BAFTAs will be announced on Sunday, February 14 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. The ceremony will be hosted by Stephen Fry and broadcast exclusively on BBC One and BBC One HD, with the ceremony being rebroadcast on BBC America.

Bridge of Spies and Carol each receive nine nominations. The Revenant is nominated in eight categories. Mad Max: Fury Road has seven nominations. Brooklyn and The Martian are each nominated six times. The Big Short, The Danish Girl and Ex Machina receive five nominations. Star Wars: The Force Awakens receives four nominations.

Bridge of Spies is nominated in the following categories: Best Film, Director for Steven Spielberg, Original Screenplay, Original Music, Cinematography, Editing, Production Design and Sound. Mark Rylance is nominated for Supporting Actor.

Carol is nominated for Best Film, Director for Todd Haynes,...

After getting snubbed in the Producers Guild award nominations earlier this week, "Carol" has risen from the ashes to lead all movies, along with "Bridge of Spies," in BAFTA award nominations.

"Carol" and "Bridge of Spies" netted nine nods apiece, including Best Film. They are joined in that category by "The Big Short," "The Revenant," and "Spotlight."

Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon continued to cement their roles as Oscar frontrunners with nominations in the lead actor category.

In an interesting turn for awards season watchers, Alicia Vikander was nominated as lead actress for "The Danish Girl." She also received mention in the supporting category for "Ex Machina." Here is the full list of nominations:

Best Film

The Big Short

Bridge of Spies

Carol

The Revenant

Spotlight

Outstanding British Film

45 Years

Amy

Brooklyn

The Danish Girl

Ex Machina

The Lobster

Director

Todd Haynes - Carol

Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu - The Revenant...

Nominations for the 69th annual British Academy Film Awards arrived early this morning and in welcome news, the proceedings were topped by Todd Haynes’ Carol and Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies (both of which made our top 50 of the year), with 9 nominations each. Not far behind was The Revenant, which was nominated in eight categories. while Mad Max: Fury Road has seven nominations.

Following that, Brooklyn and The Martian are each nominated six times. The Big Short, The Danish Girl and Ex Machina received five nominations with Alicia Vikander picking up two acting nominations. A little film called Star Wars: The Force Awakens also managed to rack up four nominations.

Check out the full list below ahead of a ceremony on February 14th.

2015 Nominations

(presented in 2016)

Best Film

The Big Short Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Brad Pitt

Bridge Of Spies Kristie Macosko Krieger, Marc Platt, Steven Spielberg

Carol Elizabeth Karlsen,...

Reactions roll in following this year’s BAFTA nominations.BAFTAs 2016Bridge Of Spies, Carol lead with nine nominationsFull list of nominations

Suffragette, Spectre, Joy among shutouts

Fox tops distributor nominationsScreen Stars of Tomorrow nominated

Comment: shining a spotlight on British Film

In-depth: Best Film nominees

Galleries: Best Film; ActorsBridge Of Spies

Steven Spielberg (director): “I’m very grateful to the voters at BAFTA for this bouquet of nominations for both me and all of my colleagues who made invaluable contributions to this little known story that was such an honor for all of us to tell.”

Mark Rylance (actor): “Thank you very much for this nomination. My scenes were pretty much all with Tom Hanks who was not only a joy to support in his subtle and generous performance but also a great teacher through example about film acting. It was hard to go wrong with such a wonderful script and with a true genius...

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has just announced there nominations and there’s quite a lot to process, so let’s start from the top. Steven Spielberg’s Cold War drama Bridge of Spies and Todd Haynes’ gorgeous relationship drama Carol have tied for the lead with nine nominations apiece, with both films receiving nominations for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay (in their respective categories). Not far behind is Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s revenge epic The Revenant with eight nominations, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Editing.

What may come as a surprise to some is that Adam McKay’s comedy-drama about the 2008 financial crisis did rather well. It may have only received five nominations, but they were all major nods: Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Christian Bale), and Best Editing. Meanwhile, the film that has...

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Carol, The Revenant, Bridge Of Spies, Spotlight and more lead the charge at the 2016 BAFTAs...

The annual BAFTA film awards roll around again on February 14th, with Stephen Fry once again hosting. And it was Fry and Gugu Mbatha-Raw who read out the nominations for this year's gongs nice and early in London today.

Without further ado, here's what's up for said prizes in a few weeks' time.

Best Film

The Big Short Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Brad Pitt

Bridge Of Spies Kristie Macosko Krieger, Marc Platt, Steven Spielberg

Carol Elizabeth Karlsen, Christine Vachon, Stephen Woolley

The Revenant Steve Golin, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Arnon Milchan, Mary Parent, Keith Redmon

Spotlight Steve Golin, Blye Pagon Faust, Nicole Rocklin, Michael Sugar

Outstanding British Film

45 Years Andrew Haigh, Tristan Goligher

Amy Asif Kapadia, James Gay-Rees

Brooklyn John Crowley, Finola Dwyer, Amanda Posey, Nick Hornby

The Danish Girl Tom Hooper, Tim Bevan,...

The 2015 British Independent Film Awards nominations have been announced and "The Lobster,"Macbeth," and "45 Years" led the pack! But where's Eddie Redmayne who is soooo good in "The Danish Girl?" At least his co-star, Alicia Vikander, received a nod for Best Actress.

Winners will be announced on December 6th. Here's the complete list of nominees of The Moët British Independent Film Awards

Best British Independent Film

.Amy.

.Ex Machina.

.45 Years.

.The Lobster.

.Macbeth.

Best Director

Asif Kapadia, .Amy.

Alex Garland, .Ex Machina.

Andrew Haigh, .45 Years.

Yorgos Lanthimos, .The Lobster.

Justin Kurzel, .Macbeth.

Best Actor

Tom Courtenay, .45 Years.

Colin Farrell, .The Lobster.

Michael Fassbender, .Macbeth.

Tom Hardy, .Legend.

Tom Hiddleston, .High-Rise.

Best Actress

Marion Cotillard, .Macbeth.

Carey Mulligan, .Suffragette.

Charlotte Rampling, .45 Years.

Saoirse Ronan, .Brooklyn.

Alicia Vikander, .The Danish Girl.

Best Supporting Actor

Luke Evans, .High-Rise.

Brendan Gleeson, .Suffragette.

Domhnall Gleeson, .Brooklyn.

Sean Harris, .Macbeth.

Ben Whishaw, .The Lobster.

Best Supporting Actress

Helena Bonham Carter,...

It’s never too early to start preparing for the Oscars!

Sure, we’re more than three months removed from the awards ceremony on February 28, but a lot of those names you’ll be hearing come Oscar time are in theatres or soon-to-be playing at a theatre near you.

With the Golden Globes nominations kicking the official awards season off on December 10th, we’re making our best guesses at the films that will be nominated. As we head into the holiday season, it’s time to set your sights on the movies that will be the topic of every movie fan’s conversation.

Here’s our list of the ten movies you need to see before the awards race kicks off!

Brooklyn, John Crowley

Stars: Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson, Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters

Likely nominations: Best Actress, Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best...

Up until it began its theatrical release last week, I’m not sure how many people really knew just how good Brooklyn was. It’s one thing to read reviews praising Saorise Ronan and company, but the loveliness of the work only fully reveals itself when you see it. All the way up and down the line this is just a wonderful film that really does feel like something that could potentially turn into an Oscar juggernaut. The fact that some are underestimating it has me wondering just how well it could wind up doing, which is what we’ll be discussing here today. Here we go… The movie is a romantic drama/period piece about Eilis (Ronan), an Irish girl planning to immigrate to America. When she arrives, she meets and falls for an Italian boy from Brooklyn (Emory Cohen), opening her eyes to a new world. When she...

Film4 has received a total of 41 nominations for the films it has backed at this year.s British Independent Film Awards, including six for Justin Kurzel's Macbeth.

Macbeth is in contention for best British independent film, best director, lead actor Michael Fassbender, lead actress Marion Cotillard, support actor Sean Harris and cinematographer Adam Arkapaw.

The film will soon be available on Amazon Prime Video in an exclusive streaming deal negotiated by the Us distributor, the Weinstein Co. According to one report that deal is worth $US4 million.. Macbeth opens in limited theatrical release in the Us on December 4.

Another film co-produced by See-Saw Films, Slow West, scored a nomination for John Maclean as best debut director.

Yorgos Lanthimos.s The Lobster tops the list with seven nominations. Andrew Haigh.s 45 Years and Macbeth each received six while. Alex Garland.s Ex Machina and Asif Kapadia.s Amy garnered five each.

Greek helmer Yorgos Lanthimos’ purest and painful reminder that love reigns is measuring off against Justin Kurzel’s paranoia bliss and Andrew Haigh’s in it for the long term portrait received the most nominations for the upcoming 2015 British Independent Film Awards. Mysteriously, Rachel Weisz failed to nab a nom in the Best Actress category, but The Lobster has a wide-spread reach in all major categories with seven nominations. 45 Years, the favorite in both acting categories and Macbeth are one shy with six noms apiece. Apart from the Best Picture category, we’re keeping tabs for a surprise win in the Best Screenplay and the Best Supporting Actor race should be a hoot as both Gleesons in Brendan and Domhnall will be competing against each other. The award show technically kicks off award season on December 6th.

Best British Independent Film

“Amy”

“Ex Machina”

“45 Years”

“The Lobster”

“Macbeth”

Best Director

Asif Kapadia,...

While we’ll be hearing about the Oscar race ad nauseam for the next many months, there are a few awards ceremony that actually highlight films that might slip under the radar. Like the recently unveiled Gotham award nominations, the British Independent Film Awards do a splendid job of taking a look at some of the year’s overlooked films, and today brings their nominations.

Topping the list is Yorgos Lanthimos‘ The Lobster (which we quite liked at Cannes, and will be released next spring in the U.S.), earning seven nominations, including Best Film and Director. Also in the same major categories, but earning six overall, were 45 Years and Macbeth, which we also praised, and will arrive in the U.S next month. Notably, the documentary Amy snuck into the Best Film category, proving just how much a hit it was in the U.K. as well.

Ahead of the December 6th ceremony,...

The Lobster received seven nominations; 45 Years and Macbeth received six each.

Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster topped this year’s Moet British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) nominations, which were presented in London this morning (Nov 3) by Gemma Chan and Thomas Brodie-Sangster.

The film garnered seven nods including Best British Independent Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Producer of the Year.

Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years and Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth both received six nominations each, receiving acting nods for stars Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay for the former, and Marion Cotillard and Michael Fassbender for the latter.

Asif Kapadi’s documentary Amy, which told the story of the late singer Amy Winehouse, received five nominations, as did John Crowley’s period drama Brooklyn.

Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise and Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette each received four nominations.

Alongside The Lobster, the titles also nominated for Best British Indepedent Film were: 45 Years, Amy, Ex Machina and [link...

'Nicholas and Alexandra': Movie starred Michael Jayston and Janet Suzman 'Nicholas and Alexandra' movie review: Opulent 1971 spectacle lacks emotional core Nicholas and Alexandra is surely one of the most sumptuous film productions ever made. The elaborate sets and costumes, Richard Rodney Bennett's lush musical score, and frequent David Lean collaborator Freddie Young's richly textured cinematography provide the perfect period atmosphere for this historical epic. Missing, however, is a screenplay that offers dialogue instead of speeches, and a directorial hand that brings out emotional truth instead of soapy melodrama. Nicholas and Alexandra begins when, after several unsuccessful attempts, Tsar Nicholas II (Michael Jayston) finally becomes the father of a boy. Shortly thereafter, he and his wife, the German-born Empress Alexandra (Janet Suzman), have their happiness crushed when they discover that their infant son is a hemophiliac. In addition to his familial turmoil, the Tsar must also deal with popular...

Awards season has transformed into pretty much a 12 month a year event (outside of maybe a few weeks in June) which means there is news to report about some of the more anticipated prestige players of 2015. Fox Searchlight announced today that John Crowley's acclaimed romantic drama "Brooklyn" will hit theaters in platform release on Nov. 6.  The tearjerker was one of the big surprises at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival where it screened out of competition (read my review here).  Stars Saoirse Ronan, Michael Zegen, Domhnall Gleeson and Julie Walters are all potential acting category contenders and Nick Hornby delivers another wonderful screenplay adaptation after last year's "Wild."  Screenings at Telluride or Toronto seem likely, but a slot at the New York Film Festival just makes too much sense, doesn't it? Tom Hooper's "The Danish Girl" also found a release date today as Focus Features announced it will open in New...

Professor Stephen Hawking and the surprisingly good British weather were amongst the stars of the show at the 68th BAFTA Awards ceremony.Click here for full list of winners

At London’s Royal Opera House, Host Stephen Fry introduced the 68th Ee BAFTAs by making a reference to the night’s weather, which for the first time in many years, didn’t involve rain.

Making his entrance to “Uptown Funk”, Fry described the BAFTAs as “that most glorious of occasions when the heavens open and the great and the good of the industry rain down upon us,” adding: “It may be dry outside but in here it’s simply pissing down with stars.”

Those stars included David Beckham, Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo, Ethan Hawke, Julie Walters, Kristin Scott Thomas, Noomi Rapace, Jesse Eisenberg, Ralph Fiennes and surprise guest Tom Cruise, who handed out the Best Film prize.

Absent directors

Despite winning the top prizes for Boyhood, director...

Everyone knows Woody Allen. At least, everyone thinks they know Woody Allen. His plumage is easily identifiable: horn-rimmed glasses, baggy suit, wispy hair, kvetching demeanor, ironic sense of humor, acute fear of death. As is his habitat: New York City, though recently he has flown as far afield as London, Barcelona, and Paris. His likes are well known: Bergman, Dostoevsky, New Orleans jazz. So too his dislikes: spiders, cars, nature, Wagner records, the entire city of Los Angeles. Whether or not these traits represent the true Allen, who’s to say? It is impossible to tell, with Allen, where cinema ends and life begins, an obfuscation he readily encourages. In the late nineteen-seventies, disillusioned with the comedic success he’d found making such films as Sleeper (1973), Love and Death (1975), and Annie Hall (1977), he turned for darker territory with Stardust Memories (1980), a film in which, none too surprisingly, he plays a...

Exclusive: Tim Grady and Jeff Lipsky’s New York-based Adopt Films has acquired Effie Gray, the period drama penned by Emma Thompson. Dakota Fanning stars as the eponymous character in the biopic of the 19th century Scotswoman who married critic and author John Ruskin as a teenager only to see their six-year relationship finally annulled with Gray still a virgin. She later wed celebrated pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais. For Millais, Gray bore eight children and became his muse (along with her younger sister Sophie).

The company plans an early spring 2015 release.

Julie Walters plays Ruskin’s baleful, controlling mother, and David Suchet is Ruskin’s feckless, enabling father. Thompson, Tom Sturridge, Greg Wise, Claudia Cardinale, James Fox, Derek Jacobi and Robbie Coltrane round out the cast.

Richard Laxton (Burton & Taylor) directs from Thompson’s first original screenplay. (She won a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for 1995’s Sense And Sensibility.

Welcome back to Cannes Check, In Contention's annual preview of the films in Competition at next month's Cannes Film Festival, which kicks off on May 14. Taking on different selections every day, we'll be examining what they're about, who's involved and what their chances are of snagging an award from Jane Campion's jury. Next up: David Cronenberg's "Maps to the Stars." The director: David Cronenberg (Canadian, 71 years old). I don't think I exactly need to introduce Cronenberg, unless your auteur radar extends only to directors who have been nominated for Oscars. The cinema's currently dormant king of body horror has shifted in and out of genres and levels of respectability, his previous 20 features taking him from shoestring kink ("Stereo") to more elaborate gross-out cult items ("Videodrome") to warped mainstream fare ("The Fly") to icy arthouse provocations ("Crash") to tastefully cerebral prestige items ("A Dangerous Method"), with any number of stages in between.

At the Independent Spirit Awards Saturday afternoon, John Cassavetes Award winner (and former In Contention contributor) Chad Hartigan told me something I didn't know: He wouldn't have made "This is Martin Bonner" if it weren't for Steve McQueen's "Hunger." He copped a few of the film's lines in his film, some of the camerawork, too. He was inspired, he said, by a filmmaker who could pull something that powerful off with such modest means, both financially and artistically. That, to me, is McQueen's legend. That, to me, is the kind of thing that will endure. These nickel-plated notions of "importance" that people throw around during the Oscar season, straining to associate some arbitrary level meaning to the thing, they can frankly diminish the very fine achievement on display. "I fear all the talk about the historical importance of '12 Years a Slave' almost completely obscures its extraordinary artistic merit,...

Here we are. After months of seeing the films and seeing them campaigned, we’re 72 hours away from the winners being revealed. In the crafts categories, we’ve already had a race for the ages, where highlights have included some legendary accomplishments ("Gravity's" visual effects anyone?), the makeup artists and hairstylists continuing to prove their eclecticism and the division between the costume designers and the production designers proving uneventful, with each branch pretty much behaving in the same manner as before. This isn’t touching the most bizarre element of this year’s race – the controversy in Best Original Song. Expect "Gravity" to dominate the crafts categories. Nominated for seven awards, it appears the favorite in many of the fields throughout. But that’s not to say Oscar night won’t have some exciting moments. Will there be any upsets? Will "The Great Gatsby" really become a double Oscar winner?...

In the lead-up to the 86th annual Academy Awards on March 2, HitFix will be bringing you the lowdown on all 24 Oscar categories with multiple entries each day. Take a few notes and bone up on the competition as we give you the edge in your office Oscar pool! Of all craft categories, Best Film Editing is the one most closely tied to the Best Picture race: nominees from the latter category invariably dominate the former, and as pundits are so fond of reminding everyone, no film has won the top prize without a corresponding editing bid since 1980. That's no quirk or accident, given how heavily editing interacts with script and performance, and though Best Picture no-shows occasionally triumph here (like surprise victor "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" two years ago), that won't be happening this year. Five Best Picture nominees make up the field, and I strongly suspect they'd...

Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks ‘snubbed’: Oscar nominations 2014 (photo: Emma Thompson in ‘Saving Mr. Banks’) The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences uses the preferential voting system to select the nominees in the various Academy Award categories and — pre-1944, post-2009 — the Best Picture Oscar winners. When it comes to the nominations, that means an ardent minority has a good chance of selecting a nominee, whereas a widely popular — but not ardently popular — choice may be left out of the Oscar shortlist. Oscar 2014 non-nominees Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson likely had their names listed on numerous (perhaps even on a wide majority) of ballots; Hanks for Paul Greengrass’ Captain Phillips, Thompson for John Lee Hancock’s Saving Mr. Banks. But if in most instances they weren’t listed at or very near the top, they’d have little chance of earning a nomination, especially if there was an — even...

Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Paul Greengrass has been selected by the Board of Directors of the American Cinema Editors (Ace) to be honored with the organization’s prestigious Ace Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award.

The award will be presented at the 64th Annual Ace Eddie Awards ceremony on Friday, February 7, 2014 in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel, it was announced today by the Ace Board of Directors.

“Paul Greengrass is one of the most exciting filmmakers working in cinema today,” stated the Ace Board of Directors. “A Greengrass film simply has its own signature – from the magnificent hand-held camera work, to his ability to engage audiences with riveting storytelling, his canon of work is bold and iconic. His latest film, Captain Phillips, is a masterwork yielding some of the finest filmmaking of the year that has already been honored with four Golden Globe® nominations including Best Director,...

"Schindler's List" already looked like an instant classic the moment it was released 20 years ago this week (on December 15, 1993). Shot in timeless black-and-white, Steven Spielberg's based-in-fact account of Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist who saved 1,200 Jews from the Polish city of Krakow during the Holocaust by putting them on his factory payroll, became a landmark film, becoming the definitive depiction of the Holocaust for many viewers around the world. It also made a star out of Ralph Fiennes, an A-lister out of Liam Neeson, and an Oscar-winner out of Spielberg, who proved once and for all that he was not just a director of kiddie fantasies.

Two decades have done nothing but burnish the film's reputation as an artistic masterpiece and educational tool. Still, even though everyone's seen it, there's plenty you probably don't know about how it got made, from the project's birth in a Beverly Hills luggage store,...

Sean Ellis's Metro Manila was the big winner at last night's Moët British Independent Film Awards.

The film, which centres on a family who flee the rice fields of the Philippines to start a new life in Manila, won Best Director, Best Achievement in Production and Best British Independent Film.

The Best Actor prize went to James McAvoy for Filth, while Le Week-End's Lindsay Duncan took home the Best Actress award. Imogen Poots collected the Supporting Actress gong for The Look of Love and Ben Mendelsohn won Best Supporting Actor for Starred Up.

Special awards on the night were handed to Julie Walters, who took the Richard Harris Award for outstanding contribution to British film, and Paul Greengrass, recipient of the Variety Award for helping to shine the world spotlight on the UK.

The Bifa winners in full are as follows:

Best British Independent Film

Metro Manila -...

It’s a very important night for British film. Celebrating, in a way the BAFTAs can’t, the vital new talents emerging in this country. The British Independent Film Awards is one of our favourite nights of the year, as much a routemap for the people to watch over the next year as it is a celebration of them.

The sheer variety of films nominated is evidence of the potent creative landscape of Britain. From the crowd pleasing and inspirational journey of Steve Coogan and Judi Dench in Philomena, through the haunted and surreal discovery of Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin, to the barren urban clash of Clio Barnard’s The Selfish Giant this country has an independent film industry to be proud of.

There was a great swell of support for one film in particular but the awards point to many successes here. It’s great to see...

Other winners included actors James McAvoy and Lindsay Duncan, For Those In Peril director Paul Wright and Blue is the Warmest Colour.Scroll down for full list of winners

Philippines-set crime thriller Metro Manila has scooped the top prize at the 16th Moet British Independent Film Awards in London, beating box office hit Philomena as well as The Selfish Giant, Starred Up and Le Week-end.

Metro Manila led the pack on the night with three wins including Best British Independent Film, Best Director for Sean Ellis and Best Achievement in Production.

Clearly stunned, Ellis thanked Bifa for supporting “our little holiday film” when accepting the Best Film prize and - holding back tears - dedicated the award to his mother.

The crime drama, shot in the Philippine capital in the Tagalog language with a local cast and crew, debuted at Sundance in January and is the UK’s submission for the Best Foreign-Language Film at the Oscars...

Paul Potts movie ‘One Chance’ wins 2013 Starz Denver Film Festival Audience Award (photo: James Corden as ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ hit Paul Potts looking at Brad Pitt photo in ‘One Chance’) Among the winners at the 2013 Starz Denver Film Festival (Sdff), which ran November 6-17, was David Frankel’s One Chance, the story of Paul Potts, a timid shop assistant and amateur opera singer who eventually topped "Britain’s Got Talent." James Corden plays Potts, while Julie Walters and Colm Meaney are his parents. Director Frankel’s best-known movies are The Devil Wears Prada (2006), which earned Meryl Streep a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for playing Anne Hathaway’s style-conscious boss and nemesis, and the sentimental blockbuster Marley & Me (2008), toplining Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson. A 2012 reunion with Meryl Streep in Hope Springs, also featuring Tommy Lee Jones and Steve Carell, did only moderate business. This year’s Starz Denver...

Happy Hump Day, kids, and listen up as right now we have your chance to score a copy of Warner Bros.' 40th Anniversary Exorcist Blu-ray on us! That should make you pretty damned happy, no?

To enter for your chance to win, just send us an E-mail Here including your Full Name And Mailing Address. We’ll take care of the rest.

From the Press Release

When The Exorcist was first released in 1973, viewers were frightened out of their wits - and literally out of their seats. Now Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (Wbhe) will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Academy Award® winning director William Friedkin’s suspense masterpiece that haunted and intrigued the world with a new Blu-ray release featuring the Extended Director’s Cut and Theatrical Version with new special features and premiums ($49.99 Srp). Available October 8, just ahead of Halloween, this 40th Anniversary Edition will include two new...

On tap right now is an exclusive clip from Warner Bros.' 40th Anniversary Exorcist Blu-ray, and with it we go a little bit behind the scenes. Check it out, and look for more on this badass home video package soon!

From the Press Release

When The Exorcist was first released in 1973, viewers were frightened out of their wits - and literally out of their seats. Now Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (Wbhe) will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Academy Award® winning director William Friedkin’s suspense masterpiece that haunted and intrigued the world with a new Blu-ray release featuring the Extended Director’s Cut and Theatrical Version with new special features and premiums ($49.99 Srp). Available October 8, just ahead of Halloween, this 40th Anniversary Edition will include two new featurettes: “Beyond Comprehension: William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist” and “Talk of the Devil,” as well as an excerpt from Friedkin’s book...

Experimental filmmaker. Screenplay guru. Andy Warhol expert. Yes, Jj Murphy is all of these things — and he’s bringing his varied cinematic interests on a personal tour of the American Pacific Northwest this Oct. 6-9.

The fun begins at the Northwest Film Forum in Seattle, Washington on Oct. 6 at 5:00 p.m. for an exciting screening of Murphy’s newly restored classic experimental film Print Generation. For this much acclaimed film, Murphy took one minute of the same film footage and re-printed it fifty times, over the course of which the image gradually — and radically — transforms into an abstraction of its original self.

This new print of Print Generation comes courtesy of Mark Toscano and the Academy Film Archive. The film will screen at this event along with two other short works by Murphy. Click here for more information.

Murphy and Print Generation will then move to Portland, Oregon for...

From the producers of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy comes the new international thriller, Closed Circuit. Following a mysterious explosion in a busy London market, the police swoop, a suspect is detained, and the country prepares for one of the most high-profile trials in British history. Two exceptional lawyers with a romantic history step into a dangerous web of secrets and lies, and when evidence points to a possible British Secret Service cover up, it’s not just their reputations, but their lives that are at stake.

Starring Eric Bana, Rebecca Hall, Ciarán Hinds, Riz Ahmed, Anne-Marie Duff, Kenneth Cranham, Denis Moschitto, Julia Stiles, and Jim Broadbent, Closed Circuit will be in theaters August 28.

Focus Features and Wamg invite you to enter to win a prizepack for Closed Circuit

One (1) winner will receive:

$25 Visa gift card to see Closed Circuit Focus Features DVD set: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Debt...

Last year, we reported that a limited TV series based on The Exorcist was in the early stages of development. That project evolved into a new drama series that Morgan Creek is shopping to TV networks. According to Deadline, Jeremy Slater (Fantastic Four reboot) is writing the series that is said to be a brand new take on the material.

The Exorcist TV series is still in the early stages of development, with the project being pitched to both cable and broadcast networks. With the popularity of horror TV series on the rise, we wouldn’t be surprised to see a number of networks fighting for this.

Morgan Creek owns the rights to The Exorcist and they are spearheading the project, with Roy Lee (The Departed, The Ring) on board as an executive producer. We’ll be sure to let readers know as soon as more details are available.

In...

There is no denying that The Exorcist is a powerful film among many horror & non-horror fans. It is also important to the genre considering how revered it is among critics and film analysists that tend to shy away from genre filmmaking. The film is a classic and while I prefer Exorcist III more, this is still a film that I have to get on Blu-Ray. Warner Brothers will be releasing a 40th Anniversary Blu-Ray set on October 8th, just in time for Halloween. Read below for the special features and what the set looks like!

From the Press Release

The Exorcist tells the now-famous story of a girl’s demonic possession, and a gripping fight between good and evil. Linda Blair, in a breakout role, plays Regan, a young girl who starts to exhibit strange, arcane behavior. Her mother (Burstyn) calls upon a priest, Father Karras (Miller) to investigate. But Karras,...

Back in June, Warner Bros. revealed the new Blu-ray edition of The Exorcist in celebration of its 40th anniversary. New images of the set have now been released and we have them for you to check out. Warner Bros. previously made this official announcement:

“When The Exorcist was first released in 1973, viewers were frightened out of their wits – and literally out of their seats. Now Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (Wbhe) will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Academy Award® winning director William Friedkin’s suspense masterpiece that haunted and intrigued the world, with a new Blu-ray release featuring the Extended Director’s Cut and Theatrical Version with new special features and premiums ($49.99 Srp). Available October 8, just ahead of Halloween, this 40th Anniversary Edition will include two new featurettes: “Beyond Comprehension: William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist” and “Talk of the Devil,” as well as an excerpt from Friedkin’s book The Friedkin Connection: A Memoir.