Directors Guild Nominations - Greta & Jordan, Yay!

by Nathaniel R

This year's 70th annual DGA Awards will be held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on February 3rd a month before the Oscars. The winner for Directing in Theatrical Features usually goes on to win the Oscar though historically there's about one exception a decade (Ben Affleck for Argo, Rob Marshall for Chicago, Ron Howard for Apollo 13,  etcetera-- basically don't have the "oh" sound in your movie title!-- did not repeat their wins at the Oscars and some of them weren't even nominated for the Academy Award). 

This year's lucky five nominees -- statistically you can expect four of them to pop up again with Oscar -- are:

THEATRICAL FEATURE

• Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water
• Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
• Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards...
• Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
• Jordan Peele, Get Out

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"Tully" Teases

Chris here. Has everyone come around to the comedy masterpiece that is Young Adult yet? If not, allow yourself a revisit in the coming months because we have an enticing reunion between its team. Charlize Theron returns for director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody for Tully, a tale of contemporary suburban motherhood. 

This time around Halt and Catch Fire's Mackenzie Davis joins the collaborators as the titular nanny who helps Theron's mother cope with the demands of parenting, and they begin to establish a bond together as well. While Reitman/Cody are more widely known for their Juno collaboration which landed Cody an Oscar, this film looks to skew closer to Young Adult based on the just released teaser. The almost dialogue free 90 seconds is filled with brisk detail and tough honesty (not to mention a few belly laughs) that reminds immediately Young Adult's painfully precise opening sequence. Will this satiric look at new motherhood be equally spot on? Things are already promising for something special when the film opens April 20!

Asian Film Award Nominees: "Legend of the Demon Cat" and More...

by Nathaniel R

Legend of the Demon Cat

It's difficult to keep track of the cream of the crop of Asian cinema because there are so many different bodies handing out prizes and so many of the major international awards bodies ignore that region altogether. One of the youngest of the Asian awards bodies is the bluntly titled "Asian Film Awards" which have only been operating since 2007. Their nomination leader this year is a film called Legend of the Demon Cat from Chen Kaige (who is most famous stateside for his 1993 arthouse smash and Oscar nominee Farewell My Concubine from 1993) but his latest isn't actually up for the top category, instead heavily dominating the tech fields. The film has not yet been released in the States.  Since these awards are based out of Hong Kong their nominees skew heavily towards Chinese productions...

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Costume Design and Cinematography Guild Honors

by Nathaniel R

Sometimes all it takes is one killer lewk. You might not have thought of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri as a "costume" movie but the Costumer Designer Guild gave it one of their contemporary nominations all the same. Must've been that already famous janitor jumpsuit with bandana on Frances McDormand. It's so very "Mildred". Either that or, you know, the Guilds are just voting on their favorite movies (as they are also prone to do) without thinking too much on their own fields within those movies. Who knows what lurks in the hearts of awards voters? No one truly as they're non monolithic.

More on their nominations (and the Cinematography guild also) with commentary after the jump...

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FYC: Salma Hayek in "Beatriz at Dinner"

Before the Oscar’s nomination votingends on January 12^th, a best actress plea from Jorge...

We’re now in a post-Golden Globes time of awards season, where the most open and uncertain race in years has slowly become more solidified. And it seems like the Best Actress category has, if not all five nominees locked down, at least four (Hawkins, McDormand, Robbie and Ronan) that are solidly established.

But there’s always a maybe. There’s always the possibility of a Charlotte Rampling in 45 Years, or a Marion Cotillard in Two Days, One Night. So today I’m making my case of why this year there should be a Salma Hayek in Beatriz at Dinner...

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