Directors Guild Nominations

And then there were five. With the announcement earlier today of the five directors nominated by the Directors Guild of America, the field just got that much smaller at least when it comes to predicting which film will win Best Picture at this year's Academy Awards. Of course these nominations also offer a good preview of which directors might get nominated for an Oscar, but not always as we saw last year with only two DGA-nominated directors making the Oscar shortlist.

The DGA nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Feature Film for 2013 are:

• Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity
• Paul Greengrass, Captain Phillips
• Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
• David O. Russell, American Hustle
• Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street

The trifecta of Gravity, 12 Years a Slave, and American Hustle just solidified their front-runner status with the latter film getting notices in all of the main guild organizations showing wide support and true momentum. But I will be truly shocked if the winner isn't Cuarón or McQueen as they've pretty much dominated the season so far. If they do end up winning, then it would be the 7th straight year of a first-time winner. In fact, this streak will hold true if any of the nominees win other than Scorsese, who got his 12th DGA nod today.

NBR winner Spike Jonze, Golden Globe nominee Alexander Payne, and previous DGA champs Woody Allen and Joel & Ethan Coen found themselves looking from the outside, but I think at least one of them will replace someone on the road to the Oscars. I was especially rooting for Jonze and the Coen brothers, the latter of which have gotten way less love for their film so far this season.

Christmas Movie Glut

Desolation of Smaug, Peter Jackson's fifth foray into Middle Earth led the North American box office over the past weekend beating out the overly promoted sequel to Anchorman, which came in at the lower end of expectations. At least it did better than extinct on arrival Walking with Dinosaurs. In limited release, it was mixed fortunes as Spike Jonze's non-traditional love story Her, bolstered by its awards buzz, debut solidly, while Asghar Farhadi's The Past, recently  snubbed by the Academy's foreign language branch, had less the desirable results. All of these films and so much more are banking that people will come out in droves this upcoming Christmas week.

In terms of new releases, distributors thought it best to dump a whole bunch of films on Christmas Day. The most anticipated of these for cinephiles like myself would be Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Due to its delay coming out of the gates, it hasn't lit up the usual award precursors, but from everything I've been hearing it's not exactly a cuddly film. Probably a bit more tailored for general audiences is The Secret Life of Walter Mitty directed and starring Ben Stiller. The beautifully edited commercials and visually entrancing posters for this film feature grand adventures for its day-dreaming protagonist which should appeal to a broad audience or at least that's the hope. For those needing a bit more testosterone to their holidays, it's practically a smorgasbord with samurai action film 47 Ronin, sports comedy Grudge Match, and military film Lone Survivor (uh... spoiler alert?) all debuting. Ralph Fiennes' Charles Dickens film The Invisible Woman and the Justin Bieber documentary Believe are also coming out tomorrow. And yes, that's hopefully the first time Dickens and Bieber have appeared in the same sentence.

The competition doesn't end there, however, as there are plenty of holdovers appealing to families and/or Oscars enthusiasts that should do much business. Disney's animated hit Frozen should do extremely well this week coming off a weekend where it ranked third overall and already hitting the $200 million milestone today. Fellow November release, Catching Fire grossing over $370 million already, is still in the mix as well as recent release Saving Mr. Banks starring Emma Thompson as Mary Poppins' creator P.L. Travers and Tom Hanks as Walt Disney himself. American Hustle leads the Oscar-y holdovers after a successful expansion this past weekend where it ended up just behind Frozen. With a super starry cast and great reviews, it should do well in the next couple of months no matter what happens this week. Along with American Hustle and Her, other Oscar-y films looking for more people to watch them this week included Inside Llewyn Davis, Philomena, and Nebraska.

Finally, there's the long-awaited August: Osage County starring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. It was supposed to come out on Christmas, but it has since been pushed back to Friday the 27th. Did they see all of the competition above and decide to play it safe or perhaps it's a sign that the studio is slowly cutting its losses after the seemingly cool critical and awards reception the film has had to date. Also getting very little awards buzz relative to expectations is Jason Reitman's Labor Day starring Kate Winslet, which won't really open until next month save for a one-week Oscar qualifying run this Friday. For my part, as a Streep and Winslet fan I'll definitely see their films whenever they come out, but since it won't be on Christmas I'll need to decide which of the other films I'm going to watch. I'm leaning towards Walter Mitty to see with my parents then possibly Her, American Hustle, and/or Wolf of Wall Street just for me. So many choices! What will you do?

Creative Arts Emmy Winners

I can hardly believe that the Emmy Awards are this Sunday! I haven't had a chance to get into the nitty gritty of the main nominations, but I still have a few days to weigh in. For now, just wanted to highlight the recent winners from this past weekend's Creative Arts Emmy ceremony.

Let's get the actors out of the way and congratulate Jeremy Davies (Justified), Martha Plimpton (The Good Wife), Jimmy Fallon (Saturday Night Live), and Kathy Bates (Two and a Half Men). Frankly I'm actually a bit shocked at all of these as I had pegged stronger and likelier candidates in all four categories, but this is why I don't make it a living actually predicting these award shows. Still it's a bit shocking to me to see Michael J. Fox ( for either of his roles in The Good Wife or Curb Your Enthusiasm), Mark Margolis (Breaking Bad), Joan Cusack (Shameless), or Melissa McCarthy (Saturday Night Live) not win. Though for McCarthy it was more me thinking how much they love her not realizing that the Emmys really love Bates too.

HBO was the big winner of the night picking up 17 awards including 6 Emmy wins for Game of Thrones, the most of any show. Last year's Creative Emmys MVP Boardwalk Empire took home 3 awards. While these early wins should signal wide support from voters come Primetime Emmy time, they shouldn't feel too share. In fact it was new show Homeland that took flashier Casting and Editing awards. Girls and Game Change (Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin!) also won for its casting while Curb Your Enthusiasm, How I Met Your Mother, and Hatfield & McCoys all picked up editing honors. The miniseries Great Expectations, Saturday Night Live, and Frozen Planet got four wins each while CBS had 13 wins and PBS was a close third with 11.

A few other noteworthy results include Betty White's 90th Birthday special losing to The Kennedy Center Honors (honoring Neil Diamond and Meryl Streep), Martin Scorsese winning his second Emmy award for the documentary his directed about George Harrison, and The Penguins of Madagascar upsetting The Simpsons for Best Animated Program. The 65th Annual Tony Awards also picked up 3 wins including Best Special Class Program and Original Music and Lyrics for the song "It's Not Just For Gays Anymore" performed by Neil Patrick Harris. And you can now say "Emmy-winning show Smash" as its choreographer Joshua Bergasse won against steep competition from dancing reality shows including last year's two-time winner So You Think You Can Dance.

Click here to see the complete list of winners and nominees. The Primetime Emmys are September 23rd.

The Artist and Homeland Win Golden Globes

While I got 7 of 11 predictions right with the TV categories, I bombed with the films getting only 6 of 14 predictions right including only 2 of the 6 acting categories! The award ceremony itself moved fairly well. Host Ricky Gervais did his schtick which ended up being not as controversial as was marketed. The big winners of the night ended up cable/premium TV shows and Harvey Weinstein as you will see from the winners below...


Best Motion Picture, Drama: The Descendants
Best Motion Picture, Comedy: The Artist
Best Director: Martin Scorsese, Hugo
Best Actress, Drama: Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Best Actress, Comedy: Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn
Best Actor, Drama: George Clooney, The Descendants
Best Actor, Comedy: Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, The Help
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Best Animated Film: The Adventures of Tintin
Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation
Best Screenplay: Midnight in Paris
Best Score: The Artist
Best Song: "Masterpiece," W.E.

Weinstein's The Artist was the top film of the night netting three wins for Picture, Actor, and Score. It definitely looks like this is the film to beat for the rest of the awards season culminating at the Oscars. Good news for it is that there isn't a clear-cut challenger from amongst the other films with the field divvying up the other awards. While The Descendants also won Best Picture, it didn't get Director nor Screenplay, which were arguably won by superstars in their field, Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen respectively. Weinstein also steered Meryl Streep and Michelle Williams to their Golden Globes win (Streep's 8th, Williams' 1st) giving presumed frontrunner Viola Davis real competition for Oscars. Davis was the only BFCA winner to not win tonight as George Clooney, Octavia Spencer, and Christopher Plummer solidifying their chances by winning here. Jean Dujardin also won and showed off just how charming he is. Finally, Madonna won Best Song and made sure to thank Harvey Weinstein for believing in her film.

Best TV Series, Drama: Homeland
Best TV Series, Comedy: Modern Family
Best Actress, Drama: Claire Danes, Homeland
Best Actress, Comedy: Laura Dern, Enlightened
Best Actor, Drama: Kelsey Grammer, Boss
Best Actor, Comedy: Matt LeBlanc, Episodes
Best Mini-Series or TV Movie: Downton Abbey
Best Actress, Miniseries/TV Movie: Kate Winslet, Mildred Pierce
Best Actor, Miniseries/TV Movie: Idris Elba, Luther
Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Lange, American Horror Story
Best Supporting Actor: Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones

On the TV side, Modern Family was the only broadcast show to win an award taking home Best Comedy Series. Homeland was the only multiple winner here taking home Best Drama Series and Best Actress for Claire Danes. It marked Showtime's first Best Series win at the Golden Globes. I predicted Kelsey Grammer's win, but totally didn't expect Laura Dern and Matt LeBlanc to win even though in retrospect, both wins totally make sense. The latter was also helped by a particularly thin category. I was pretty damn happy to see Downton Abbey win its category as well as seeing Kate Winslet get her third Globe win. Deserved wins also went to Idris Elba, Jessica Lange, and Peter Dinklage though Lange thanked Ryan Murphy for his great writing. Hilarious. Dinklage in the meantime urged people to Google Martin Henderson.

There's not much else I could say about the ceremony. There were an unusually numerous mentions of poop and penis. The former most due to the Bridesmaids presence and the latter courtesy of Seth Rogen claiming he had an erection and Clooney extended tribute to Michael Fassbender's member. My favorite speech of the night probably went to Michelle Williams. She was noticeably happy, but still reserved and even paid tribute to Marilyn Monroe. I also loved Sidney Poitier and Helen Mirren honoring Morgan Freeman with the Cecil B. Demille Award. Of course Uggie goofing off on stage after The Artist took home the last award was probably the one moment everyone will remember from tonight's ceremonies. It's a dog eat dog world after all.

National Board of Review Winners

The National Board of Review has always been one of the first major precursors to the Academy Awards and even if the NYFCC beat them to the punch by a couple of days the fact that they went in several different directions just shows how volatile and possibly exciting the awards season will be this year. At least I'm hoping!

And this year's NBR winners are...

Best Film
Hugo

Top Ten Films
The Artist
The Descendants
Drive
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
The Ides of March
J. Edgar
Tree of Life
War Horse

Choosing Hugo was a bit unexpected, but that's what makes it the more exciting. That film should worry though since more often than not this past decade, the winner here has gone on to lose at the Oscars including last year's supposed front-runner The Social Network. We get the usual fan service to their favorites such as George Clooney and Clint Eastwood, but their inclusions of Dragon Tattoo, Harry Potter, and Drive are quite interesting. I am a bit disappointed to see Midnight in Paris miss out here and surprised to see Moneyball and The Help miss out as well. In any case I have seen 6 of the 10 films listed and will no doubt see the other four soon enough.

Best Actor
George Clooney, The Descendants

Best Actress
Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin

Best Supporting Actor
Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Best Supporting Actress
Shailene Woodley, The Descendants

Breakthrough Performance
Felicity Jones, Like Crazy
Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Best Ensemble Cast
The Help

Spotlight Award
Michael Fassbender (A Dangerous Method, Jane Eyre, Shame, X-Men: First Class)

Getting an acting win here, even for breakthrough performance, definitely increases one's chances of getting an Oscar nomination if the last few years are any indication. Translating those nominations into wins is a bit more dicey. The big winner here is perhaps Tilda Swinton and Shailene Woodley especially the latter since she's a newcomer. Speaking of newcomers, seems like Felicity Jones and Rooney Mara held off Elizabeth Olsen this time around. Neither Glenn Close nor Viola Davis won, but the latter (as well as Jessica Chastain) was buoyed by that Ensemble award. Finally, Michael Fassbender, the male equivalent of Chastain, won the Spotlight Award which he certainly deserved. I do wish he shared it with Ryan Gosling who has two films in the Top 10.

Best Director
Martin Scorsese, Hugo

Debut Director
J.C. Chandor, Margin Call

Best Original Screenplay
Will Reiser, 50/50

Best Adapted Screenplay
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, & Jim Rash, The Descendants

Special Filmmaking Achievement Award
Harry Potter Franchise

Best Animated Feature
Rango

NBR definitely gave Hugo, The Descendants, 50/50, and Harry Potter big boosts today. The latter especially for being in the Top 10 and getting a Special Achievement Award. It's also quite fun to see Jim Rash (Dean Pelton in Community) pop up in the Oscar race.

Top Ten Independent Films
50/50
Another Earth
Beginners
A Better Life
Cedar Rapids
Margin Call
Shame
Take Shelter
We Need To Talk About Kevin
Win Win

This was yet another huge blow for Martha Marcy May Marlene since it was expected to end up here. Two years ago, District 9 made this shortlist and ended up getting Oscar-nominated for Best Picture. I wonder if any of these films can do the same. For my part, I've only seen 4 of the 10 films here--50/50, Beginners, Cedar Rapids, and Win Win.

Best Foreign Film
A Separation

Top Five Foreign Films
13 Assassins
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
Footnote
Le Havre
Point Blank

Best Documentary
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

Top Five Documentary Films
Born to be Wild
Buck
George Harrison: Living in the Material World
Project Nim
Senna

NBR Freedom of Expression
Crime After Crime
Pariah

Not much to say about these last few categories since I haven't seen any of the films. I have only heard of good things regarding A Separation and Pariah so they'll be on top of my Netflix queue as soon as they're available there.

Basically, it's still anybody's game.

Thanksgiving Movie Glut

Fans of sparkly vampires and George Clooney had a field day this past weekend book-ending the top ten box office chart with boffo numbers. But for me, I'm all about this upcoming Thanksgiving weekend where there are no less than seven films being released that I'm interested in watching. I'm pretty sure that's a personal record, but I'd have to do way more research than I have time for to actually confirm that. Still, being interested in seven films coming out at the same time is quite insane, but that's what it has come down to this year.

Of course, it's not that surprising I suppose since studios do love to take advantage of the holiday to not only release their family films, but also those Oscar hopefuls they still have in the pipeline. And those two categories pretty much sum up the seven films I'm dying to see.

The Family Films

At the moment of writing this entry, The Muppets, Arthur Christmas, and Hugo are averaging a 95.6% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and while all three will probably hurt one another this weekend by cannibalizing the audience, all three should play well and long during the upcoming holiday season. Certainly The Muppets will be the highest-grossing new film this week by virtue of the ridiculously massive ad campaign and exposure it has had for the past few months. From their parody posters and commercials to adorable interviews to even an Oscar-hosting viral campaign, it's been a Muppets world and we've all just been living in it. It's also the film with the broadest demographic appealing not only to kids who wants to see Kermit and company, but to older folks as well who'd see the film for nostalgia sake.

That is not to say that Arthur Christmas and Hugo don't have broad appeal or have had substantial marketing campaigns as well. The first is targeting families with younger kids, and I've seen this film advertised in movie theaters since May and not just in front of kiddie films. Plus families will eat this up and as the only overt Christmas flick of the bunch, it should do great through the yuletide season. I'm much more curious how Hugo will fare. It's definitely a family film, but it is also randomly directed by Martin Scorsese. Film buffs, Oscar lovers, and Scorsese enthusiasts are all madly in love with this film already from the looks of recent reactions to some of its early screenings. The question is will the general audience find it and love it as well? Some are even saying it might be an Oscar favorite. Speaking of...

The Oscar Films

While those three films will probably duke it out in the box office alongside those sparkly vampires and shirtless werewolves, these next few films are targeting a more niche audience. Like the family films above, they are all highly rated by critics (so far) and also have big Oscar hopes. My most anticipated film in the bunch is My Week with Marilyn with Michelle Williams playing the iconic blonde bombshell. The stupendous cast and the frothy trailer makes me happy and she's getting real heat for her third Best Actress nomination.

Then there's the Cannes-winning film The Artist which is literally winning audiences (awards) everywhere it plays. Its lead Jean Dujardin is almost a lock for a Best Actor nomination, and the film itself looks to dominate awards season en route to a likely Best Picture nomination. Not too shabby for a black-and-white, silent, French film huh? The other two films are A Dangerous Method and Rampart. The first film teams this year's breakthrough actor Michael Fassbender with Viggo Mortensen and Keira Knightley in a story about Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. The latter stars Woody Harrelson as a dirty cop. All of the actors I just mentioned are getting varying amounts of Oscar buzz.

Jean, Michael, and Woody

So the question is, which films will I actually end up seeing this weekend? The safest bet will be The Muppets (all my friends want to see it) and My Week with Marilyn (I really want to see it). If I can't fit in another film this busy weekend, I'll try my best to catch up on The Artist and Hugo as soon as I am able. I'll probably wait to see the rest when they come out on DVD or if they are still around, during the doldrums that is January. How about you?

All films are coming out tomorrow, Nov. 23, except for The Artist which comes out on Friday, Nov. 25. However, all of the specialty films (The Artist, My Week with Marilyn, Rampart, and A Dangerous Method) will only be in very limited theaters.

The Emmys: The Winners

What a weird night. That's pretty much all I can say about the Emmy Awards tonight. It felt like there was no overwhelming theme. Jane Lynch did an okay job hosting, but some of the technical aspects and skits of the show fell flat or were too clunky. The awards themselves went to a mix of expected and shocking winners, mostly deserved.

The big winner of the night has got to be Friday Night Lights which won two surprise awards in Writing and for its lead actor Kyle Chandler in its farewell season. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose indeed! Julianna Margulies, Margo Martindale, and Peter Dinklage took home the other Drama acting awards. All four winners made me smile. The supposed front-runners, Boardwalk Empire and Mad Men, had to settle for Directing (Martin Scorcese!) and Drama Series respectively.

In the Comedy side, Modern Family ruled with five wins including book-ending the show with two acting awards for TV married couple Ty Burrell and Julie Bowen at the beginning of the show and Comedy Series for the final award. Jim Parsons and Melissa McCarthy won in an upset in their lead categories with Steve Carell and Laura Linney largely expected to win. In one of the best moments of the show though Amy Poehler (who should've won) led McCarthy, Linney, and the other lead actress nominees on stage when their names were called up. Brilliant! The other winners are...

DRAMA
SERIES: Mad Men (AMC)
ACTOR: Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights (NBC)
ACTRESS: Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife (CBS)
SUPP. ACTOR: Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones (HCO)
SUPP. ACTRESS: Margo Martindale, Justified (FX)
DIRECTING: Martin Scorcese, Boardwalk Empire (HBO)
WRITING: Jason Katims, Friday Night Lights (Direct TV)
GUEST ACTOR: Paul McCrane, Harry's Law (NBC)
GUEST ACTRESS: Loretta Devine, Grey's Anatomy (ABC)

COMEDY
SERIES: Modern Family (ABC)
ACTOR: Jim Parsons, Big Bang Theory (CBS)
ACTRESS: Melissa McCarthy, Mike & Molly (CBS)
SUPP. ACTOR: Ty Burrell, Modern Family (ABC)
SUPP. ACTRESS: Julie Bowen, Modern Family (ABC)
DIRECTING: Michael Spiller, Modern Family (ABC)
WRITING: Steve Levitan & Jeffrey Richmond, Modern Family (ABC)
GUEST ACTOR: Justin Timberlake, Saturday Night Live (NBC)
GUEST ACTRESS: Gwyneth Paltrow, Glee (FOX)

In the other side of things, Downton Abbey ruled with four wins including Best Miniseries over Mildred Pierce, which still saw two of its actor win in Guy Pearce and Kate Winslet. Winslet is now a Tony Award away from full EGOT status. The Amazing Race and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart also walked away with Emmy trophies once again.

MINISERIES, MOVIE OR DRAMATIC SPECIALS
MINISERIES OR MOVIE: Downton Abbey (PBS)
ACTOR: Barry Pepper, The Kennedys (Starz)
ACTRESS: Kate Winslet, Mildred Pierce (HBO)
SUPP. ACTOR: Guy Pearce, Mildred Pierce (HBO)
SUPP. ACTRESS: Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey (PBS)
DIRECTING: Brian Percival, Downton Abbey (PBS)
WRITING: Julian Fellowes, Downton Abbey (PBS)

VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY PROGRAM
SERIES: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)
DIRECTING: Saturday Night Live (NBC)
WRITING: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)

REALITY
COMPETITION PROGRAM: The Amazing Race (CBS)
PROGRAM: Deadliest Catch (Discovery)
HOST: Jeff Probst, Survivor (CBS)

In terms of my predictions, I went a dismal 7 for 19. And really the less said about that bit of statistic, the better.

Looking Forward To...

Shutter Island
Release: October 2, 2009
Distributor: Paramount
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Jackie Earle Haley, Ben Kinglsey, Mark Ruffalo, Max von Sydow, Patricia Clarkson, and Leonardo DiCaprio