Here Are The DGA Nominations!

Posted on January 12, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Directors Guild of America announced their nominees today! The DGA is usually one of the best of the Oscar precursors. Getting a DGA nomination usually translates to a Best Picture nomination.

Here are the nominees. There really aren’t any surprises among them, though, based on its strength with the other guilds, I did think that Steven Spielberg might sneak in there with Bridge of Spies.

Alejandro G. Inarritu for The Revenant

Tom McCarthy for Spotlight

Adam McKay for The Big Short

George Miller for Mad Max: Fury Road

Ridley Scott for The Martian

And here are the nominees for a new award that the DGA is giving out this year!

Outstanding Directorial Achievement for a First-Time Feature Film Director

The nominees are:

Fernando Coimbra, “A Wolf at the Door”

Joel Edgerton, “The Gift”

Alex Garland, “Ex Machina”

Marielle Heller, “The Diary of a Teenage Girl”

Laszlo Nemes, “Son of Saul”

The best thing about this new category? Knowing that Sasha Stone is probably pissed off that Diary of a Teenage Girl received a nomination.

Here Are The Cinema Audio Society (CAS) Nominations!

Posted on January 12, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

MOTION PICTURE – LIVE ACTION

Bridge of Spies
The Hateful Eight
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

MOTION PICTURE—ANIMATED

The Good Dinosaur
Hotel Transylvania 2
Inside Out
Minions The Peanuts Movie

Here Are The Visual Effects Society Nominations!

Posted on January 12, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

FEATURE FILM

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature

Furious 7

San Andreas

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature

In The Heart of The Sea

Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature

The Walk; World Trade Center

Star Wars: The Force Awakens; Falcon Chase / Graveyard

Ant-Man; The Microverse

Jurassic World; Jungle Chase

Tomorrowland; Tomorrowland Center

Outstanding Animated Performance in a Photoreal Feature

Star Wars: The Force Awakens; Maz

The Revenant; The Bear

Avengers: Age of Ultron; Hulk

Chappie; Chappie

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal Project

Ant-Man; Macro Action

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation; Underwater Torus Chamber

Star Wars: The Force Awakens; Falcon Chase / Graveyard

The Walk; Towers Walk

Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Feature

San Andreas; Los Angeles Destruction

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Tomorrowland

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Revenant; Bear Attack

Outstanding Models in a Photoreal or Animated Project

Star Wars: The Force Awakens; BB-8

Avengers: Age of Ultron; Hulkbuster

Everest; Mt. Everest

Jurassic World; Indominus Rex

Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature

Mad Max: Fury Road; Toxic Storm

Avengers: Age of Ultron; Hulk vs Hulkbuster

San Andreas; Hoover Dam / San Francisco Tsunami

San Andreas; Los Angels Destruction

Star Wars: The Force Awakens; Starkiller Base

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature

The Peanuts Movie

Inside Out

Anomalisa

Hotel Transylvania 2

The Good Dinosaur

Outstanding Animated Performance in an Animated Feature

The Peanuts Movie; Snoopy

The Peanuts Movie; Charlie Brown

Inside Out; Joy

The Good Dinosaur; Spot

Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature

The Good Dinosaur; The Farm

Inside Out; Imagination Land

The Peanuts Movie; Charlie Brown’s Neighborhood

Shaun the Sheep Movie; Under the Arches

Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature

Inside Out

The Peanuts Movie

The Good Dinosaur

Home

2015 In Review: Lisa Picks The 30 Best Films of 2015!

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Well, the time has arrived! It’s time for the list that you’ve all been waiting for! Here are my top 30 films of 2015!

Now, as some of you may know, I am currently in the process of playing catch up as far as all of my reviews are concerned. Sadly, I haven’t posted a review for every film listed below. However, as I continue to post reviews tonight and tomorrow, I will be sure to add links to this list!

Finally, I have only considered and listed 2015 films that I have actually seen. Unfortunately, Anomalisa has not opened in my part of the world yet and neither has Son of Saul. So, I could not consider either one of them for the list below. However, I have seen every other “prestige” picture to have been released over the past few weeks. So, if you look at this list below and wonder if I actually saw Spotlight, The Hateful Eight, and The Big Short, rest assured that I did. And none of them made my list.

With all that in mind, here are my picks for the 30 best films of 2015!

Carol
Brooklyn
Inside Out
Mad Max Fury Road
Ex Machina
Room
Clouds of Sils Maria
Sicario
Straight Outta Compton
The Final Girls
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Beasts of No Nation
88
Love & Mercy
The Tribe
The End of the Tour
Furious Seven
The Walk
Crimson Peak
Unfriended
Trainwreck
The Revenant
Creed
Shaun the Sheep
The Gift
The Stanford Prison Experiment
A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflection On Existence
Spring
Maggie
The Green Inferno

Katharine Isabelle in 88

You can check out my picks for previous years by clicking on 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014!

Agree? Disagree? Have a list of your own? Let us know in the comments!

Previous Entries In The Best of 2015:

Here’s What Won At The Golden Globes!

Posted on January 10, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Golden Globes just ended and here’s what won the film categories this year. (Check out a full list of nominees here.)

Best Motion Picture (Drama) — The Revenant

Best Motion Picture (Comedy) — That freaking hilarious comedy The Martian

Best Actor (Comedy) — Matt Damon in that freaking hilarious comedy The Martian

Best Actor (Drama) — Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant

Best Actress (Comedy) — Jennifer Lawrence in Joy

Best Actress (Drama) — Brie Larson in Room

Best Supporting Actor — Sylvester Stallone in Creed

Best Supporting Actress — Kate Winslet in Steve Jobs

Best Director — Alejandro G. Inarritu for The Revenant

Best Screenplay — Aaron Sorkin for Steve Jobs

Best Original Score — Ennio Morricone for The Hateful Eight

Best Original Song — Writing’s on the Wall, that boringass song from Spectre

Best Animated Film: Inside Out

Best Foreign Language Film: Son of Saul

Here Are The Costume Designers Guild Nominations!

Posted on January 7, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Costume Designers Guild Nominations were announced today and here they are! Ex Machina received a nomination, which would seem to be another indication that it’s popular with Academy voters. (Then again, remember how excited we were last year when Nightcrawler kept getting love from the guilds?)

Excellence in Contemporary Film

“Beasts of No Nation” – Jenny Eagan
“Joy” – Michael Wilkinson
“Kingsman: The Secret Service” – Arianne Phillips
“The Martian” – Janty Yates
“Youth” – Carlo Poggioli

Excellence in Period Film

“Brooklyn” – Odile Dicks-Mireaux
“Carol” – Sandy Powell
“Crimson Peak” – Kate Hawley
“The Danish Girl” – Paco Delgado
“Trumbo” – Daniel Orlandi

Excellence in Fantasy Film

“Cinderella” – Sandy Powell
“Ex Machina” – Sammy Sheldon Differ
“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2” – Kurt and Bart
“Mad Max: Fury Road” – Jenny Beavan
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” – Michael Kaplan

Here Are The USC Scripter Nominations!

Posted on January 7, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The USC Scripter nominations are meant to honor film scripts that were adapted from previously published material. You’ll find their film nominations below and you may immediately notice that Oscar front runner Carol is missing. Make of that what you will.

The Big Short
Screenwriters Adam McKay and Charles Randolph, adapted from Michael Lewis’s nonfiction work “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine”
Paramount Pictures and W.W. Norton

Brooklyn
Novelist Colm Tóibín and screenwriter Nick Hornby
Fox Searchlight and Viking

The End Of The Tour
Screenwriter Donald Margulies, adapted from David Lipsky’s memoir “Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace”
A24 and Broadway Books

The Martian
Novelist Andy Weir and screenwriter Drew Goddard
Twentieth Century Fox and Crown Publishing Group

Room
Emma Donoghue for the novel and screenplay
A24 and Little, Brown and Company

Here Are The WGA Nominations!

Posted on January 6, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Writers Guild of America announced their film nominations earlier today! As always, the WGA nominations should be taken with a grain of salt, as several potential Oscar nominees — Brooklyn, Room, The Hateful Eight — were not eligible to be nominated for a WGA award.

With that in mind, here are the nominees!

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Bridge of Spies, Written by Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen; DreamWorks Pictures

Sicario, Written by Taylor Sheridan; Lionsgate

Spotlight, Written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy; Open Road Films

Straight Outta Compton, Screenplay by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff; Story by S. Leigh Savidge & Alan Wenkus and Andrea Berloff; Universal Pictures

Trainwreck, Written by Amy Schumer; Universal Pictures

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

The Big Short, Screenplay by Charles Randolph and Adam McKay; Based on the Book by Michael Lewis; Paramount Pictures

Carol, Screenplay by Phyllis Nagy; Based on the Novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith; The Weinstein Company

The Martian, Screenplay by Drew Goddard; Based on the Novel by Andy Weir; Twentieth Century Fox

Steve Jobs, Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin; Based on the Book by Walter Isaacson; Universal Pictures

Trumbo, Written by John McNamara; Based on the Biography by Bruce Cook; Bleecker Street Media
DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY

Being Canadian, Written by Robert Cohen; Candy Factory Films

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, Written by Alex Gibney; HBO Documentary Films

Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, Written by Brett Morgen; HBO Documentary Films

Prophet’s Prey, Written by Amy J. Berg; Showtime Documentary Films

The American Society of Cinematographers Has Spoken!

Posted on January 6, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The American Society of Cinematographers announced their 5 nominees for the best cinematography of 2015 and here they are:

Bridge of Spies – Janusz Kaminski
Carol – Edward Lachman
Mad Max: Fury Road – John Seale
The Revenant – Emmanuel Lubezki
Sicario – Roger Deakins

This is Roger Deakins’s 14th ASC nomiantion! If Sicario scores a best picture nomination, I wouldn’t be surprised if Deakins finally picks up an Oscar as a result.

Though a lot of critics don’t want to admit it (for obvious reasons), the guild awards are actually a far better Oscar precursor than the critic awards. If you want to know what films are popular with the people who actually make movies, look to the guild awards.

And looking at the guild awards so far, it really does appear that there are quite a few films that have wide industry support. Interestingly enough, both Sicario and Straight Outta Compton have been making something of a comeback with the guild awards. (Even though Compton was not nominated by ASC, it has been recognized by the PGA, WGA, and SAG.) As well, Bridge of Spies and Trumbo have both received more guild support than either has gotten from the critics.

For that matter, both Mad Max: Fury Road and The Big Short have received more guild support than Spotlight. I know that Sasha Stone and Jeff Wells have pretty much declared Spotlight to be unbeatable but who knows? Things could still get interesting.

(Correction: Over on Gold Derby, Sasha Stone is now predicting victory for The Big Short.)

The ADG Nominates Crimson Peak … and some other films…

Posted on January 5, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The PGA wasn’t the only guild to announce nominations today! The Art Director’s Guild announced their nominees for the best of 2015 as well. And here they are! (And yay to the ADG for nominating Crimson Peak!)

THE NOMINEES FOR EXCELLENCE IN PRODUCTION DESIGN FOR A FEATURE FILM IN 2015 ARE:

1. PERIOD FILM

BRIDGE OF SPIES
Production Designer: ADAM STOCKHAUSEN

CRIMSON PEAK
Production Designer: THOMAS E. SANDERS

THE DANISH GIRL
Production Designer: EVE STEWART

THE REVENANT
Production Designer: JACK FISK

TRUMBO
Production Designer: MARK RICKER

2. FANTASY FILM

CINDERELLA
Production Designer: DANTE FERRETTI

JURASSIC WORLD
Production Designer: EDWARD VERREAUX

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD
Production Designer: COLIN GIBSON

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS
Production Designers: RICK CARTER, DARREN GILFORD

TOMORROWLAND
Production Designer: SCOTT CHAMBLISS