Award Season 2015

[numbersix]

Feels a little early, but...

GOTHAM AWARD NOMINATIONS

Best Feature
Carol
The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Heaven Knows What
Spotlight
Tangerine


Best Documentary
Approaching the Elephant
Cartel Land
Heart of a Dog
Listen to Me Marlon
The Look of Silence


Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Desiree Akhavan for Appropriate Behavior (Gravitas Ventures)
Jonas Carpigano for Mediterranea (Sundance Selects)
Marielle Heller for The Diary of a Teenage Girl (Sony Pictures Classics)
John Magary for The Mend (Cinelicious Pics)
Josh Mond for James White (The Film Arcade)


Best Screenplay
Carol, Phyllis Nagy (The Weinstein Company)
The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Marielle Heller (Sony Pictures Classics)
Love & Mercy, Oren Moverman and Michael Alan Lerner (Roadside Attractions, Lionsgate, and River Road Entertainment)
Spotlight, Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (Open Road Films)
While We’re Young, Noah Baumbach (A24)


Best Actor
Christopher Abbott in James White (The Film Arcade)
Kevin Corrigan in Results (Magnolia Pictures)
Paul Dano in Love & Mercy (Roadside Attractions, Lionsgate, and River Road Entertainment)
Peter Sarsgaard in Experimenter (Magnolia Pictures)
Michael Shannon in 99 Homes (Broad Green Pictures)


Best Actress
Cate Blanchett in Carol (The Weinstein Company)
Blythe Danner in I’ll See You in My Dreams (Bleecker Street)
Brie Larson in Room (A24 Films)
Bel Powley in The Diary of a Teenage Girl (Sony Pictures Classics)
Lily Tomlin in Grandma (Sony Pictures Classics)
Kristen Wiig in Welcome to Me (Alchemy)


Breakthrough Actor
Rory Culkin in Gabriel (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Arielle Holmes in Heaven Knows What (RADiUS)
Lola Kirke in Mistress America (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Kitana Kiki Rodriguez in Tangerine (Magnolia Pictures)
Mya Taylor in Tangerine (Magnolia Pictures)


Winner of Best Ensemble is Spotlight

[Buscemi]

Pretty predictable list of nominations as it's probably going to be Carol and/or Spotlight winning nearly everything (since those are the only Best Picture nominees with mainstream appeal and were seen by more than seven people in the East Village).

[Buscemi]

Producers Guild of America Best Documentary nominees:

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/produ ... 201646799/

Should bode well for Amy, Meru, The Look of Silence, and The Hunting Ground's Oscar chances (I expect Amy to be the favorite based on its box office gross). Though last year's winner (Life Itself) failed to get an Oscar nomination and the other nominees failed to really get Oscar traction, the P.G.A. did nominate two arthouse hits and two others from previous nominees so there should be more attention this time.

[numbersix]

Gotham Winners

Best Feature: Spotlight

Best Actress: Bel Powley, The Diary of a Teenage Girl

Breakthrough Series – Longform: Mr. Robot

Best Actor: Paul Dano, Love & Mercy

Best Documentary: The Look of Silence

Audience Award: Tangerine

Special Jury Award – Ensemble Performance: Spotlight

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director: Jonas Carpigano, Mediterranea

Breakthrough Series – Short Form: Shugs & Fats

Best Screenplay: Spotlight

Breakthrough Actor: Mya Taylor, Tangerine

[Chienfantome]

Surprising win for Actress. She probably benefited from split votes between Mara and Blanchett for Carol, but it's nice to see such an unexpected win, although it's just the Gotham awards.
Happy about the Dano win, he is great in Love & Mercy (well, he is always great).

[Buscemi]

The National Board of Review selects Mad Max: Fury Road as their Best Picture.

http://www.awardscircuit.com/2015/12/01/99794/

[numbersix]

That's hilarious. Wonder if Furiosa: the Movie has a chance for an Oscar nom

[Buscemi]

The National Board of Review and the Academy rarely see eye-to-eye (their winner last year, A Most Violent Year, ended up being an also-ran in the Oscar race) so it's doubtful that it gets a nomination.

However, I like its odds more than Son of Saul (a Hungarian film many are so convinced will get a Best Picture nomination despite the lack of buzz and Sony Pictures Classics betting on The Lady in the Van).

[numbersix]

Yeah, Son of Saul is virtually guaranteed a Foreign Language nom (and possible win), but definitely not Best Film. In fact, can't you only apply to one?

Surprised by National Board of Review giving Director, Actor, and Adapted Script to The Martian. It's such a safe, long, dull film with no sense of human psychology. Watchable as popcorn fare, but there is nothing memorable in it. The board are usually more daring than this.

[Buscemi]

Amour was nominated for both Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film (winning the latter). Of course, way more buzz on that one (it had won the Palme d'Or and Riva's performance was endlessly praised, leading to a Best Actress nomination on her front).

The Martian's awards buzz has really only happened recently, after Jeffrey Wells called it the Oscar favorite (shortly after, Fox was able to get The Martian classified as a comedy in the Golden Globes race just to get nominated). Of course, he also thinks Amy Schumer will get a Best Actress nomination so who knows?

[Chienfantome]

Yeah the biggest surprise is those three prizes for The Martian. The film is fun, but heck, is Damon's performance the best an actor has given this year ? Is it the best writing of the year ? Best direction ? Those are odd choices.

[Buscemi]

I don't really see it contending for Oscars, especially since the Academy already honored it two years ago when it was called Gravity.

The only way it contends is if many of the more conservative voters perceive Spotlight as anti-Catholic (though this hasn't happened yet). But even if that happens, said voters may support Brooklyn, Joy (which has yet to be screened as Russell's apparently still working on it*), or Bridge of Spies instead.

* - After a test screening in late October (which got excellent scores, to no one's surprise), Russell dropped Danny Elfman's score and it isn't known if a new score will be recorded or if Russell will just use songs like he does most of the time.

[Buscemi]

Oscar Best Documentary shortlist. Amy of course is there. So is Going Clear, The Look of Silence, The Hunting Ground, and Meru. Biggest surprises: He Named Me Malala and Where to Invade Next.

http://variety.com/2015/film/awards/osc ... 201651045/

The five nominees will likely be the first five I mentioned (Amy and Meru did well in theatres, The Hunting Ground and The Look of Silence are from previous nominees, and Going Clear was widely seen on HBO). Cartel Land and What Happened, Miss Simone? are dark horses (the former was critically acclaimed and has Kathryn Bigelow backing it, the latter was a hit on Netflix and played a long run at New York's IFC Center).

[transformers2]

How is a Michael Moore film being on the Best Documentary Oscar shortlist surprising?

[Buscemi]

How is a Michael Moore film being on the Best Documentary Oscar shortlist surprising?

Because this one has been considered a lesser film of his and isn't as political as his more popular movies. Also, Moore has been overshadowed by more exciting documentarians (Gibney, Oppenheimer, Kapadia, Marsh, Dick, James) in recent years and his style is somewhat considered old-hat nowadays (only being really copied by conservatives still angry about Fahrenheit 9/11).