USC Scripter Awards

by Nathaniel R

It's a big night for awards -- they just keep on coming. One of the traditions we like most is the USC Libraries Scripter Awards, now in their 33rd year. They're cool because the purpose is very specific and focused. They award screenplays based on previously published material AND that material at the same time. This double honor makes sense since some adaptations are doing heavy lifting and others are kind of doing minor tweaks to the material and it can be difficult to ascertain what was actually done. Their nominees for the year are after the jump...

Click to read more ...

The 9th Annual Team Experience Awards!

by Christopher James

Many things may have changed in the past year, but one thing remains the same. The show must go on and the Team Experience Awards must continue! If there's one perk of staying quarantined in one's home for a full year, it's that there is ample time to watch movies. Before Nathaniel reveals all of his Film Bitch winners for the year, the rest of the writers at The Film Experience gathered together to vote on our favorites of 2020 (and the first two months of 2021). Nathaniel will be staying with the calendar year eligibility (plus US festivals) but the Team is using Oscar eligibility rules with one exception: we also decided to consider Small Axe in our awards as five separate films.

In the end, nothing was a match for Emerald Fennell's Promising Young Woman, which earned the most wins (4) and nominations (11) from the bunch. While that may have taken the top prize, the team nominated fifty movies across 21 categories. Check out the nominees and winners after the jump...

Click to read more ...

National Board of Review names 'Da 5 Bloods" da best.

by Nathaniel R

Big awards day, huh?!

Spike Lee's latest joint Da 5 Bloods has won both Best Film and Best Director (as well as Best Ensemble) from the National Board of Review. We must quickly point out that this does not mean that Chloe Zhao's remarkable critics-award complete sweep is broken. As I always have to remind everyone each year -- even those who should know better -- the NBR is not a "critics award". The National Board of Review, founded in 1909, is an anonymous collection of film enthusiasts, industry professionals, academics, students, and presumably a few critics though they never release the names of their organization. So they would be more accurately called an "industry honor" or a "juried prize" rather than lumped in with the 'what do film critics like?' discussion.

Minari and Sound of Metal were the only other films with multiple prizes. The NBR wins and top ten lists AND LOADS OF TRIVIA/STATS are after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Spirit Award Nods: "Never Rarely Sometimes Always" and "Minari" lead the nominations

Chauncy and Barry helping announce the Spirit nominationsby Nathaniel R

Nominations for the 36th annual Independent Spirit Awards have been announced. Spirit winners Olivia Wilde (Booksmart) and Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) as well as actress Laverne Cox announced the nominations. 

BEST FEATURE

• First Cow (Neil Kopp, Vincent Savino, Anish Savjani)
  Received 3 nominations
• Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Todd Black, Denzel Washington, Dany Wolf)
  Received 5 nominations
• Minari (Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Christina Oh)
  Received 6 nominations
• Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Sara Murphy, Adele Romanski)
  Received 7 nominations
• Nomadland (Mollye Asher, Dan Janveey, Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Chloe Zhao)
  Received 5 nominations

A Full list of Film Independent Spirit nominees and commentary follow after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Links!

• TFE Nomadland collects a bunch of OFCS prizes (*updated post)
• AV Club Lovecraft Country's Misha Green will direct the next Tomb Raider. Yes, somehow they're continuing this franchise despite the super dull results last time
• Atlantic Hollywood's big studios largely aren't following Warner Bros 'dump it all on streaming' lead. And Warner Bros may have lost one of its biggest revenue-producing directors with that decision.

News of the World, superhero multiverses, child stars, and Jonathan Bailey ❤️ after the jump... 

Click to read more ...