Vote on BAFTA's Rising Star Award

The BAFTA nominations (i.e. the UK version of the Oscars) will be announced this coming Wednesday. That's during the Oscar nomination voting period (which runs January 7th through the 14th) so it could be helpful to certain contenders (we're looking at you, especially, Mary Poppins Returns since you got stiffed at the PGA.)

But we already know the nominees in one category with BAFTA, their annual EE Rising Star Award, which is voted on by the public. This year's nominees and the 13 year history of that category after the jump...

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50 Days til Oscar, Ally!

Ladies and gentleman.... ALLY"

Not a still from the movie. They've actually put the Ally billboard up in Los Angeles in the same location it's supposed to be seen within the movie.

You have to hand it to the Warner Bros teams behind A Star is Born publicity both during its leggy run (now with a nearly $400 million global gross on a $36 million budget) and during awards season where it has consistently performed. They keep thinking of new ways to keep the film in people's minds, too, like this funny specific stunt pictured here. Will it feel like overkill by the time Academy members are voting. To some, sure, but those are likely the people who weren't going to vote for it anyway.

More Critics Prizes Roll In...

Chris here, with some goodness from more regional critics' groups. It's always fascinating to see what pockets of passion occur throughout the countries various critics' groups, even in a year such as this that appears to be largely dominated by a handful of films. This year's key films in that regard have been Roma and The Favourite, both recognized by two more groups in this roundup...

But first is a group that departed that Best Picture consensus, and wouldn't you know that yours truly also belongs to this group. I'm one of the 25ish members of the Columbus Film Critics Association (formerly titled Central Ohio... under the same acronym) and we've just announced If Beale Street Could Talk as 2018's best! Humblebrag: my personal best film of the year has won both years of my voting.

Here are the COFCA winners in addition to wins from critics in Houston and North Carolina...

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Months of Meryl: An Epilogue

John and Matthew watched every single live-action film starring Meryl Streep. 

Meryl has been a superstar for 40 years now

MATTHEW: You never forget the performers who first reach out to you from an illuminated screen and lay claim to your gaze, mind, and devotion. Before I knew anything about the art of screen acting, I knew about the miraculous and almost mythic marvel that is Meryl Streep. Months of Meryl was an undertaking that exhausted and aggravated me without end: for every unparalleled Silkwood in Streep’s filmography, there are at least two The House of the Spirits; for every forgotten or underrecognized gem like The Seduction of Joe Tynan, One True Thing, or A Prairie Home Companion, there are at least three Still of the Nights, Primes, or Dark Matters. But, more importantly, this project illuminated a great deal about a veteran artist whose empathetic interest in the lives of others moved me at such an impressionable age and will never cease to do so.

Watching and writing about Streep’s films side by side by side for well over a year has not taught me a single overarching lesson, but only deepened my appreciation for her mastery...

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Criterion Teases 2019

Chris here. One of the cinematic treasures of the new year is always the Criterion Collection's annual animated tease of what they have coming for us cinema hounds. And dare I say that this year's puzzle is as confounding as ever - or maybe, eek, I'm drawing a blank on some of the more rarified blind spots here. One film we can count on: John Cameron Mitchell's Hedwig and the Angry Inch, already teased by the filmmaker last year. Might that be this drawing's owl and earthworm? Can you spot any other film's in the drawing?