Actress in a Supporting Role, Personal Ballot

Oscar predictions are already up for Best Supporting Actress.

Will Greta Gerwig read good news or bad next week?

It's looking like the most settled of the acting categories with Viola Davis, Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris, Nicole Kidman, and Octavia Spencer all widely expected to place.

If there's a sudden shift look for either Greta Gerwig or Janelle Monae to spoil... or enliven the party, depending on your preferences. "Spoiler" is such a weird word in this context, no? Regardless, it will be a good year for the Academy in Supporting Actress with all seven of those performances that ranging from quite good to phenomenal; we'll take it!

But it's not my personal ballot and that's not only because I consider Viola Davis a lead in Fences (I realize others feel differently). Three of those names above, however, do make my personal list. The two I'd like to add to the mix are Riley Keough, so mesmerizingly trashy/real as a entrepeneur (of sorts) toying with her underlings in American Honey and Elle Fanning doing the best work of her already lauded teenage career (thus far) in 20th Century Women. Read the writeups here at the Film Bitch Awards.

Daniel Gives Thanks

Daniel here, and Happy Thanksgiving! I couldn’t be more thankful to be a member of such a lovely film-obsessed sphere as the one here at TFE. From the passionate readers and writers to our fearless leader Nathaniel, it’s a plain and simple thrill to be here with you all. In a year that I’ve found stuffed with cinematic delights, here are ten things I’m especially thankful for…

...the swirling morass of overlapping dialogue in Trey Edward Shults’ Krisha. Nothing says Thanksgiving like talking over your relatives in every room of the house and – in this turkey-trotting tale – conjuring a palpable sense of potential explosion in the process. And if that won’t make your head spin, the chaotic camerawork sure will!

…all eight hours of OJ: Made In America.

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"American Honey" & "Moonlight" lead the Spirit Award Nominations

Nominations have been announced for the 20th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards, which we generally abbreviate as "Indie Spirits" or "Spirits". American Honey and Moonlight, two idiosyncratic visions, lead with six nominations each. Moonlight, which takes the ensemble prize (but wasn't nominated for individual performances) will also presumably be hot with Oscars. The two other Oscar Best Picture contenders that did very well at the Spirits today were Jackie and Manchester by the Sea. Other People, the cancer dramedy loosely based on the directors own life, can also be very happy about its nomination showing. Other buzzy titles like Hell or High Water, 20th Century Women, and Loving had mixed success, picking up some key nods but not others despite their high profiles.

Moonlight receives six Spirit nominations... and seems likely to win a few of them.

 And here are two big reasons to celebrate -- Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic) and Isabelle Huppert (Elle) were both nominated. Oscar nominations are hardly done deals for either of those exquisite performances so any attention that can be drawn is worth celebrating. The full list with commentary after the jump (titles links go to our reviews)...

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BIFA Nominations focus on a small handful of films

We claim no expertise on the British Independent Film Awards but this year's slate seems especially teeny-tiny. Not in the size of the films, mind you  -- some are quite supersized... at least with their length -- but in the small handful that received nominations. Most of the titles were nominated in five or six categories including the UK's Oscar submission Under the Shadow, though Ken Loach's Palme D'Or winner I Daniel Blake just barely leads with seven citations...

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Review: American Honey

By Steven Fenton

The song “American Honey” is about a woman aching for the free spirit she was in her youth, wishing she’d had the courage to flee her circumstances. Andrea Arnold’s American Honey considers what that woman’s life might have been had she left. The sensational Sasha Lane plays Star, a young woman who steps out of her life and into a tribe of disenfranchised, disenchanted, lost youth on an odyssey across the American South.

Star is struggling. She’s living with her boyfriend and raising his children, with no help or money. Then one day at Wal-Mart she watches a troop of wild teens turn the store into their own raucous dance party...

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