2018 TIFF Winners

Let's with TIFF winners this year. Let's be honest, I havent follow anything this yar, I dont even watch movie that often. A lot of things happened this year.

With hundreds of films screened over 11 days the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival is finally drawing to a close.

BAFTA 2017 Winners

This year's Bafta Film Awards boasted a particularly formidable line-up of nominees.  La La Land led the pack: 32-year-old director Damien Chazelle's nostalgic Hollywood musical has been nominated in 11 categories, and won in four, including Best Picture and Best Director.

British director Ken Loach has finally won his first non-honorary Bafta for gritty benefits drama I, Daniel Blake, which had already bagged the Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. In his acceptance speech, Loach attacked the "callous brutality" of the UK government.

2017 Golden Globes Nominations: The Full List

Okay, like I said it always been more than a year since my last post. And I will start it with 2017 Golden Globes Nominations. There was lots of love for La La Land and Moonlight from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Some might agree, some might not (because I do think about that as well) Some even laughable and mind blowing. Here it is the full list

FILM

Best Picture, Drama
Hacksaw Ridge
Hell or High Water
Lion
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight

The End of the Tour

The End of The Tour was a beautifully done movie that will not be widely seen or even heard of. This movie doesn't have explosions, or side splitting humor, or sex, or anything that sells in Hollywood these days. What this movie does have is a well written plot with fantastic dialogue, a great story, wonderful performances, and thought provoking themes that make you ponder what is really important. The End of The Tour is about the five day interview between Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky, and acclaimed novelist David Foster Wallace (played by Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segel). This five day interview took place right after the 1996 publication of Wallace's epic 1,000 page novel called Infinite Jest. An interview that would later turn out to be never published and not really heard about until Wallace's 2008 suicide.

This sounds like a very simple story, but it is much deeper than that. The End of the Tour not only shows the struggles that a writer can have, but it also has many different themes, particularly about jealousy, the sense of betrayal, and how much fame a person could have. All of these themes lead to some very heartbreaking moments, as well as the film talking about the culture that we live in. I don't want to say how, because I'm afraid that I might spoil scenes, for those who have yet to see this movie, but for movie that's nothing more than a conversation between 2 people, it really is consistently engaging, deep, and entertaining.

2015 AFI FEST LINE UP

The American Film Institute has put the finishing touches on AFI FEST 2015 by announcing the titles that will make up its final five screening programs: World Cinema, Breakthrough, Midnight, Shorts and Cinema's Legacy.

According to AFI, "World Cinema showcases the most acclaimed international films of the year; Breakthrough highlights true discoveries of the programming process; Midnight selections will grip audiences with terror; and Cinema’s Legacy highlights classic movies and films about cinema. World Cinema and Breakthrough selections are among the films eligible for Audience Awards. Shorts selections are eligible for the Grand Jury Prize, which qualifies the winner for Academy Award consideration."

2015 BFI London Film Festival Lineup

The Festival will screen a total of 238 fiction and documentary features, including 16 World Premieres, 8 International Premieres, 40 European Premieres and 11 Archive films including 5 Restoration World Premieres. There will also be screenings of 182 live action and animated shorts. A stellar line-up of directors, cast and crew are expected to take part in career interviews, ScreenTalks, Q&As and a new programme of Industry Talks: LFF Connects. The 59th BFI London Film Festival will run Wednesday 7 – Sunday 18 October 2015.

Taking place over 12 days, the Festival’s screenings are at venues across the capital, from the West End cinemas – Vue West End and the iconic Odeon Leicester Square; central London venues – BFI Southbank, BFI IMAX, Picturehouse Central, the ICA, Curzon Mayfair, Curzon Soho, Cineworld Haymarket and Ciné Lumière; and local cinemas – Ritzy Brixton, Hackney Picturehouse, Curzon Chelsea, Vue Islington and Rich Mix. Additional screenings and events will take place at Tate Modern. Audiences across the UK can enjoy the Festival via simultaneous screenings in their local cinemas.

2015 TIFF Awards Winners

The Toronto International Film Festival has closed out its annual ten-day run with a star-studded awards brunch, which feiatured the announcement of the festival's various awards and prizes. Chief among them is the People's Choice Award, TIFF's most prestigious award and one chosen by audience members themselves (fans of the various films could log their vote either by depositing their ticket stubs in voting boxes available post-screening, or by using their individual ticket numbers to vote online).

Often viewed as a harbinger of awards season glory, the TIFF People's Choice Award winner has typically continued on to major Oscar attention. Since 2008, every single People's Choice Award winner, save for 2011 winner "Where Do We Go Now?," has been nominated for Best Picture. Of those titles, three -- including "Slumdog Millionaire," "The King's Speech" and "12 Years a Slave" -- have ultimately won the Oscar for Best Picture. Since TIFF's creation in 1976, five People's Choice Award winners have gone on to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

2015 Venice Film Festival Winners

The winners of the 72nd Venice Film Festival have been announced and South America triumphed with the top two wins; The Golden Lion and The Silver Lion. The Golden Lion went to Venezeula’s From Afar from Lorenzo Vigas. The Silver Lion was awarded to Argentina’s The Clan from Pablo Trapero. From Afar is Vigas’s first feature and tells the story of an older gay man in Caracas who pays younger men for their company. The Clan details the story of the Puccio Clan, an Argentine crime family who were convicted of four kidnappings and three murders in the 1980s.

The Jury Grand Prize went to the animated film Anomalisa from Academy Award winning director Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and Duke Johnson.

2015 New York Film Festival Line Up

Another year, another stellar lineup for The New York Film Festival. Following announcements regarding opening, closing, and centerpiece titles, the Film Society of Lincoln Center have unveiled the main selection for its 53rd year of bringing New Yorkers a very full, representative cinematic slate — as per usual, a mix of anticipated festival titles (just the amount of ground covered therein is terrific) and the year’s best mainstream cinema. In the case of Steven Spielberg‘s Bridge of Spies, there’s even a surprise premiere.

One can peruse the full lineup below, along with (where available) links to reviews of titles that we managed to see earlier in the year:

2015 Venice Film festival Line Up

Kristen Stewart, Michael Keaton, Eddie Redmayne, Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson are among the stars in movies coming to the world’s oldest major film festival.

The world’s oldest major film festival in Venice, Italy will once again screen films from new and established directors, with 55 new films set for this year's 72nd edition.

Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbera and Biennale president Paolo Baratta unveiled this year's star-studded lineup Wednesday morning at the Westin Excelsior Rome hotel. It includes much-buzzed about American films, a slew of Italian talent and various voices from world cinema. 

In the competition section, a number of U.S. titles are part of the lineup, which Barbara called one of the most diverse in festival. Among U.S. directors, the competition features Laurie Anderson's  return to directing with Heart of a Dog, a film about loss, Cary Fukunaga's Beasts of No Nation, starring Idris Elba as a warlord in the film about child soldiers in Africa, which Netflix bought global rights to for a reported $12 million. 

Also in the competition, Duke Johnson and Oscar winner Charlie Kaufman's animated film Anomalisa, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tom Noonan, is not for kids. Centered around the crisis of the middle-aged man, the film was partially funded by Kickstarter.   

2015 SAG Awards Winners

The winners of the SAG Awards are being announced at the annual awards show, held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. See below an updated list of winners.

THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Winner: EDDIE REDMAYNE, “THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING” (Focus Features)
STEVE CARELL, “FOXCATCHER” (Sony Pictures Classics)
BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH, “THE IMITATION GAME” (The Weinstein Company)
JAKE GYLLENHAAL, “NIGHTCRAWLER” (Open Road Films)
MICHAEL KEATON, “BIRDMAN” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Winner: JULIANNE MOORE, “STILL ALICE” (Sony Pictures Classics)
JENNIFER ANISTON, “CAKE” (Cinelou Films)
FELICITY JONES, “THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING” (Focus Features)
ROSAMUND PIKE, GONE GIRL” (20th Century Fox)
REESE WITHERSPOON, “WILD” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Winner: J.K. SIMMONS, “WHIPLASH” (Sony Pictures Classics)
ROBERT DUVALL, “THE JUDGE” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
ETHAN HAWKE, “BOYHOOD” (IFC Films)EDWARD NORTON, “BIRDMAN” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)MARK RUFFALO, “FOXCATCHER” (Sony Pictures Classics)

2015 Golden Globes Winners

Sorry late to post, but her is your 2015 Golden Globe Winners. are you happy? hopefully. 

Best Motion Picture – Drama
Winner: Boyhood
Foxcatcher
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything

Lead Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama
Winner: Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything
Steve Carell – Foxcatcher
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game
Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler
David Oyelowo – Selma

Lead Actress in a Motion Picture- Drama
Winner: Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Jennifer Aniston – Cake
Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon – Wild

Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical
Winner: The Grand BUDAPEST HOTEL
Birdman
Into the Woods
Pride
St. Vincent

Lead Actor in a Motion Picture- Comedy or Musical
Winner: Michael Keaton – Birdman
Ralph Fiennes – Grand BUDAPEST HOTEL
Bill Murray – St. Vincent
Joaquin Phoenix – Inherent Vice
Christoph Waltz – Big Eyes

Lead Actress – TV Drama
Winner: Ruth Wilson – The Affair
Claire Danes – Homeland
Viola Davis – How to Get Away With Murder
Julianna Margulies – The Good Wife
Robin Wright – House of Cards

Director
Winner: Richard Linklater – BoyhoodWes Anderson – Grand Budapest Hotel
David Fincher – Gone Girl
Ava DuVernay – Selma
Alejandro G. Inarritu – Birdman

2015 BAFTA Nominees

Awards Season is everywhere, now it;s BAFTA time to announce their nominees. 

Here is the full list of nominations for the 2015 Bafta Film Awards.

Best film

Birdman

Boyhood

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

The Theory of Everything

Outstanding British film

'71

The Imitation Game

Paddington

Pride

The Theory of Everything

Under The Skin

Actor

Benedict Cumberbatch - The Imitation Game

Ralph Fiennes - The Grand Budapest Hotel

Jake Gyllenhaal - Nightcrawler

Michael Keaton - Birdman

Eddie Redmayne - The Theory of Everything

Actress

Amy Adams - Big Eyes

Felicity Jones - The Theory of Everything

Julianne Moore - Still Alice

Rosamund Pike - Gone Girl

Reese Witherspoon - Wild

Supporting actor

Steve Carell - Foxcatcher

Ethan Hawke - Boyhood

Edward Norton - Birdman

Mark Ruffalo - Foxcatcher

JK Simmons - Whiplash

Supporting actress

Patricia Arquette - Boyhood

Rene Russo - Nightcrawler

Keira Knightley - The Imitation Game

Imelda Staunton - Pride

Emma Stone - Birdman

Director

Wes Anderson - Grand Budapest Hotel

Damian Chazelle - Whiplash

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - Birdman

Richard Linklater - Boyhood

James Marsh - The Theory of Everything

2014/2015 Awards Season Calender

October 2014

23 - Gotham Award nominations announced
30 -  Britannia Awards (BAFTA LA)

November 2014

3 - British Independent Film Award nominations
15 - Governors Awards
19 - Screen Actors Guild Award nomination ballots mailed
25 - Independent Spirit Award nominations announced

December 2014

1 - Gotham Awards2- National Board of Review vote and announce winners
3 - Directors Guild Award nomination voting opens
7 - British Independent Film Awards
8 - AFI Awards announced8 - Screen Actors Guild nomination ballots due
10 - Screen Actors Guild Award nominations announced
11 - Golden Globe Award nominations announced
13 - European Film Awards
29 - Academy Award nomination voting opens

January 2015

2 - ACE Eddie Award nominations announced
5 - Producers Guild Award nominations announced
5 - Art Directors Guild nominations announced
6 - National Board of Review Awards Gala
7 - BAFTA nominations announced
8 - Academy Award nomination ballots close
11 - Golden Globe Awards
12 - Directors Guild of America voting deadline
13 - Directors Guild of America nominations announced
15 - Academy Award nominations announced
23- Final Screen Actors Guild ballots due
24 - Producers Guild Awards25 - Screen Actors Guild Awards
30 - American Cinema Editors' ACE Eddie Awards31 - Art Directors Guild Awards

February 2015

2 - Academy Nominations luncheon 
6 - Academy Award final voting begins 
6 - Directors Guild of America final ballot deadline
7 - Directors Guild of America dinner, winner announced8 - BAFTA Awards
14 - Writers Guild Awards
21 - Independent Spirit Awards
22 - Academy Awards ceremony

Paddington (2014)

A wonderful adaptation drawn from the characters immortalised in the books, this film is a major success. Heart-warming and humorous without being mawkish or over-sentimental, the antics and escapades of lovable Paddington Bear will surely delight fans of all ages.

How the animators achieved such a wonderful and memorable 'Paddington' is a minor miracle. His expressions and mannerisms are spot on, whilst the cast are obviously all enjoying themselves enormously in being permitted to perform in Paddington's World. It is obvious that a great deal of love and affection has been injected into the making of this film; the acting, graphics, editing, sets and storyline are all virtually flawless, and you must surely be a soul with no heart not to find some modicum of pleasure from this 90 minute magical movie experience.

Into the Woods (2014)

"Into the Woods" intermingles the fairy tales of Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, and Red Riding Hood in a complex but fairly deftly plotted meta-fairy tale. A bewitched baker must bring back an item out of each fairy tale so that his wife may conceive, along the lines of the Sondheim musical.

Meryl Streep is superb as the witch. She symbolizes all the mothers who can't let their children grow up and leave the house, keeping Rapunzel locked in a tower and the young prince at bay for as long as she can. Rapunzel happens to be the baker's young sister, stolen by Streep as a baby to exact revenge on the baker's father, who visited her garden one night and made off without spilling the beans. But when did Meryl do a bad thing in movie? BUT when you say Meryl wont do a bad, this is her due. This movie imo is not good. Doesnt mean its not watchable.

"Into the Woods" is wordy and boring. It's a fairy tale story, so we expect something breezy and entertaining, not something existential and overbearing. As much as you can appreciate how Lapine and Sondheim have challenged the notion of fairy tales by turning them around on the audience, at some points it just gets boring. The film's third act, when "happily ever after" gets turned on its head, for example, is a test of patience, even though without it, the story would have no meaning and the film would therefore become artistically pointless.

2015 Golden Globe Nominations

Best Motion Picture, Drama

Boyhood

Foxcatcher

The Imitation Game

Selma

The Theory of Everything

Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

Birdman

Grand Budapest Hotel

Into the Woods

Pride

St. Vincent

PHOTOS: The riskiest Golden Globes looks ever

Disney

2015 SAG Awards Nominations

THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

Steve Carell, "Foxcatcher"
Benedict Cumberbatch, "The Imitation Game"
Jake Gyllenhaal, "Nightcrawler"
Michael Keaton, "Birdman"
Eddie Redmayne, "The Theory of Everything"

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

Jennifer Aniston, "Cake"
Felicity Jones, "The Theory of Everything"
Julianne Moore, "Still Alice"
Rosamund Pike, "Gone Girl"
Reese Witherspoon, "Wild"

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

Robert Duvall, "The Judge"
Ethan Hawke, "Boyhood"
Edward Norton, "Birdman"
Mark Ruffalo, "Foxcatcher"
J.K. Simmons, "Whiplash"

Mr Turner (2014)

We always knew that "Mr Turner" would not be a conventional costume picture any more than it would be a conventional biopic. It is, after all, a Mike Leigh film and Mr Leigh doesn't do 'conventional'. Of course, he normally concerns himself with the vagaries of contemporary middle-class culture, poking fun at, and then finding the bleeding heart of, the little people who inhabit his very personal world. (Leigh is, perhaps, the only writer/director who can crack us up and break our hearts simultaneously).

"Mr Turner" isn't the first time he has looked to the past nor to real historical figures for his material. With "Topsy-Turvy" he created the world of Gilbert and Sullivan and 'The Mikado'. As musical biopics go it is, perhaps, unique. Now with "Mr Turner" he takes us deep into the life of William Turner, arguably the first great 'modern' painter and almost certainly the greatest of all English painters, and in doing so has created the least stuffy costume picture I have ever seen. Of the several masterpieces Leigh has given us "Mr Turner" may be the finest.

Still Alice (2014)

Again, Julianne Moore did a great job to portray a career-minded ambitious woman who suffered the fatal gene inherited from her father, a disease that nothing can be done to stop or cure the dementia, the nickname of the Alzheimer's disease. She got that, then one of her daughter got it past down from her. This year, we got two movies in the same genre, the other one; an also a very good one, "You Are Not You". Both focused on an unlucky, highly educated, very successful woman who suddenly encountered a fatal disease.

This great film has some weak and/or flawed characters development and wrong casting job. Alec Baldwin is the one that definitely a miscast. The role he played got no chemistry with his wife and their children. The role he played to those three children only gave an impression of a step father, a guy who had divorced his first wife then married Alice with three children.

This film is about a woman named Alice played by the great Julianne Moore who has spent most of her life building a successful career as a linguist professor at Columbia while also maintaining a loving marriage and raising three children. The main child that we get to know is Lydia, played very well by Kristen Stewart. She is the youngest child who has moved across the country to Los Angeles in order to pursue a career as an actress.