Oscar's VFX Finalists: Lightsabers and Robots and Bears, oh my!

Usually when the Academy releases the finalists for their Visual Effects category, the list is so short that we can spend time bemoaning the lost chances of great movies. We were all ready to despair about Ex Machina being cut since films where the visual effects are genius but "supporting", as it were, are rarely if ever the ones they honor.

But lo and behold a much bigger list than usual with Ex Machina on it (yes!) as well as the practical effects wonderment that is Mad Max: Fury Road.

• Ant-Man
• Avengers: Age of Ultron
• Bridge of Spies
• Chappie
• Everest
• Ex Machina
• Furious 7
• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
• In the Heart of the Sea
• Jupiter Ascending
• Jurassic World
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Martian
• Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
• The Revenant
• Spectre
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens
• Terminator Genisys
• Tomorrowland
• The Walk

Which 5 of these finalists will you be rooting for?

P.S. Now we'll just have to puzzle out what was CGI in Bridge of Spies and speculate about how many prizes "Judy" the bear from The Revenant can wrack up this year? Leonardo DiCaprio tasted just like Oscar and she's hungry for more.

P. P.S. Does this mean the Executive Committee of AMPAS vfx branch were given a private screening of Star Wars or did they just give it a placeholder break?

P.P.S. I refuse to be ashamed that I saw Avengers: Age of Ultron three times and it deserves the nomination for The Vision alone... let alone the rest of its spectacle. But since it's popular to hate on now, will the Academy skip it? Your theories are welcome in the comments.

Interview: Director Gabriel Ripstein on Mexican Oscar Submission '600 Miles', and Working with Tim Roth

Jose here. I spoke to 600 Miles director Gabriel Ripstein minutes after an earthquake hit Mexico City on November 23rd and unexpectedly became the bearer of bad news when I asked him if his family was alright. Mr. Ripstein wasn’t aware there’d been an earthquake, but calmly added “no news is good news”. His serene demeanor reminded me of the tone of his film, a weapon-trafficking tale which could’ve easily become a sensationalist drama, but instead goes for an understated, thoughtful approach. The film stars Tim Roth as an American ATF agent who is kidnapped by a Mexican weapons smuggler played by Kristyan Ferrer (who audiences will know from Sin Nombre).

Ripstein allows his actors to revel in the humanity of these characters and delivers a film that goes beyond “odd couple” clichés, to comment on an issue that doesn’t get as much coverage as the war on drugs or terrorism. Because of its confident pacing and bold mise-en-scene, one wouldn’t guess from watching the film, that it also happens to be Ripstein’s directorial debut (it won the award for Best First Feature at the Berlinale), and yet, the first time filmmaker impressed members of the Mexican Film Academy so much that they submitted his film as their Oscar entry. I spoke to Ripstein about working with Roth, the incredible cinematic legacy of his family, and what an Oscar nomination might mean for his career. 

Read the interview after the jump...

 

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FYC: Critics Choice Best Young Performer

Last year I began a tradition to help my fellow BFCA members choose more wisely when it comes to the "Young Performer" category by sharing an eligibility list. My belief is they often choose poorly because this category gets no pre-voting discussion whatsoever and it can be difficult to even think of who is eligible. That said, you can safely expect to see Abraham Attah (Beasts of No Nation) and Jacob Tremblay (Room) nominated because they have leading roles in films that have been discussed. But who else should or could be nominated?

Ballots go out to the BFCA at any moment so here's a cheat sheet to help them vote. The category is UNDER 21... (but it should obviously be adjusted to 17 and under. Remember that year when the winner came from the sexually explicit Blue is the Warmest Color? That's what you get when you have a category with adults in it that is ostensibly a child star prize)

Please FYC your favorites in the comments. Give voters some options to truly consider:

ELIGIBLE "YOUNG PERFORMERS" IN 2015 FILMS
(if we've missed any key players - make sure to shout them out in the comments)

GIRLS
Oona Laurence (13) as "Leila Hope" in Southpaw
Günes Sensoy as "Lale" in Mustang
Raffey Cassidy (13) as "Athena" in Tomorrowland
Isabella Crovetti-Cramp (?) as "Young Joy" in Joy
Willow Shields (15) as "Primrose Everdeen" in Hunger Games - Mockingjay Pt 2
Elle Fanning (17) as "Niki Trumbo" in Trumbo
Hailee Steinfeld (19) as "Emily" in Pitch Perfect 2
Joey King (16) as "Phoebe" in Stonewall
Ashley Aufderheide (?) as "Faith" in Infinitely Polar Bear
Imogene Wolodarsky (?) as "Amelia" in Infinitely Polar Bear
Mackenzie Moss (?) as "Lisa (age 5)" in Steve Jobs
Ripley Sobo (?) as "Lisa (age 9)" in Steve Jobs
Perla Haney-Jardine (18) as "Lisa (age 19) in Steve Jobs

BOYS
Forrest Goodluck (17) as "Hawk" in The Revenant
Levi Miller (13) as "Peter" in Pan
Tony Revolori (19) as "Jib" in Dope
Shameik Moore (20) as "Malcom" in Dope
Russell Posner (?) as "Zach" in The D Train
Alex Henderson (?) as "Young Adonis" in Creed
RJ Cyler (20) as "Earl" in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Josh Wiggins (17) as "Justin Wincott" in Max
Pierce Gagnon (10) as "Nate" in Tomorrowland
Ty Simpkins (14) as "Gray" in Jurassic World
Nick Robinson (20) as "Zach" in Jurassic World
Luke Ryan (8) as "Douglas Cyr" in Black Mass
Jacob Lofland (19) as "Aris Jones" in Maze Runner: Scorch Trials
Kodi Smit-McPhee (19) as "Jay Cavendish" in Slow West
Abraham Attah (15) as "Agu" in Beasts of No Nation
Jacob Tremblay (9) as "Jack" in Room
Tom Holland (19) as "Young Thomas Nickerson" in In the Heart of the Sea
Milo Parker (?) as "" in Mr Holmes

WHICH YOUNG THESPIANS WOULD MAKE YOUR BALLOT?
I hope you'll FYC your favorites in the comments and give the Broadcast Film Critic voters some options to truly consider rather than making this the annual 'which young actor is most famous' list.

Podcast: The Danish Girl, Youth, Macbeth, Chi-Raq

Nathaniel, Nick, Katey, and Joe all return for the latest episode of the podcast in which we discuss four new films that definitely bear their auteur's signature for better and worse. Listen in and continue the conversation in the comments. The more the merrier.

42 minutes 
00:01 NBR & NYFCC debrief
05:40 The Danish Girl
16:28 Macbeth's feeling of inevitability...or is it monotony?
22:56 Paolo Sorrentino's Youth, a bit of The Great Beauty and a lot of Jane Fonda
33:00 Spike Lee's new urgent joint Chi-Raq
39:45 Joe's new job & Nick's sudden activity

Further Reading for Context:
Nick's Danish Girl tweet
Nathaniel's Category Fraud Screed
Decider
Nick's "Favorites" Countdown
NBR & NYFCC

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. 

Youth, Danish Girl, Macbeth

Beauty vs Beast: Everything's Coming Up Con

Jason from MNPP here with our weekly battle of the good-to-bad guys called "Beauty vs Beast" -- today I'm taking us deep inside all of the shades of gray in between. This past weekend marked the 25th anniversary of Stephen Frears' first US film, the electric noir The Grifters, which came out in limited release on December 5th, 1990. It is a very good movie! If you haven't seen it in awhile, you should. It was nominated for four Oscars -- Frears was nominated for Director, writer Donald Westlake got a Best Adapted nod, and the final two nominations went to the two lovely, too awful ladies making muck out of John Cusack's poor-sap-life...

PREVIOUSLY We're really loving on the year 1990 this month - last week it was Misery's turn, and with a swing of the sledgehammer Annie Wilkes took Paul Sheldon down for the count again, walking off with just over 3/4s of the vote. James Caan had his cheerleaders though (besides myself, even) - here's what brookesboy says:

"Kathy is so entertaining in this, but Annie is torturing some poor dude who does not deserve it one lil bit. And I don't know anyone who isn't fully delighted when Paul cracks her skull with that brass pig. Annie gets the bronze--where it counts; Paul gets the gold."