The Vancouver Film Critics Circle announce their nominees!

Take a gander:

Best Film
“The Hurt Locker”
“A Serious Man”
“Up in the Air”

Best Actor
George Clooney, “Up in the Air”
Colin Firth, “A Single Man”
Jeremy Renner, “The Hurt Locker”

Best Actress
Carey Mulligan, “An Education”
Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious”
Meryl Streep, “Julie & Julia”

Best Supporting Actor
Alfred Molina, “An Education”
Stanley Tucci, “The Lovely Bones”
Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds”

Best Supporting Actress
Vera Farmiga, “Up in the Air”
Anna Kendrick, “Up in the Air”
Mo’Nique, “Precious”

Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”
Jason Reitman, “Up in the Air”
Quentin Tarantino, “Inglourious Basterds”

Best Screenplay
Mark Boal, “The Hurt Locker”
Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner, “Up in the Air”
Quentin Tarantino, “Inglourious Basterds”

Best Documentary
“Anvil!: The Story of Anvil”
“The Cove”
“Food, Inc.”

Best Canadian Film
“I Killed My Mother”
“Polytechnique”
“The Young Victoria”

Best Actor in a Canadian Film
Xaviar Dolan, “I Killed My Mother”
Sebastien Huberdeau, “Polytechnique”
Stephen McHattie, “Pontypool”

Best Actress in a Canadian Film
Emily Blunt, “The Young Victoria”
Anna Dorval, “I Killed My Mother”
Nisreen Faour, “Amreeka”

Best Supporting Actor in a Canadian Film
François Arnaud, “I Killed My Mother”
Daniel J. Gordon, “Nurse. Fighter. Boy”
John Paul Tremblay, “Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day”

Best Supporting Actress in a Canadian Film
Lisa Houle, “Pontypool”
Miranda Richardson, “The Young Victoria”
Gabrielle Rose, “Excited”

Best Director of a Canadian Film
Cherien Dabis, “Amreeka”
Xavier Dolan, “I Killed My Mother”
Denis Villeneuve, “Polytechnique”

Best British Columbia Film
“Excited”
“Facing Ali”
“A Shine of Rainbows”

Best Foreign Language Film
“Broken Embraces,” Spain
“The Headless Woman,” Argentina
“Summer Hours,” France

Achievement Award for Contribution to the Film Industry in British Columbia
Nettie Wild
Leonard Schein

-Thoughts?

The scores for Crazy Heart, The Lovely Bones, and Where the Wild Things Are turn out not to be eligible?

Apparently so, according to this article here. Read the whole article to find out what eligible scores are left, but here's part of the article:

As usual, several prominent scores have failed to qualify for or opted out of the original-score Oscar, with this year’s victims including Brian Eno, Karen O and T Bone Burnett.

Others whose music is ineligible include Carter Burwell, Erran Baron Cohen and moonlighting actor Jason Schwartzman.

Eno’s score for “The Lovely Bones,” a haunting and effective use of the composer’s music both new and old, was not submitted to the Academy for consideration. Neither was Burnett's and Stephen Bruton's score to "Crazy Heart," which had been singled out by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

Yeah Yeah Yeah’s frontwoman Karen O, and Burwell, who co-wrote the music for “Where the Wild Things Are,” both submitted their work to the Academy but were disqualified by the music branch.

Eno’s music to “The Lovely Bones,” which incorporates several older compositions by the pioneering rock and ambient musician (right), is ineligible by the composer’s own choice. According to a spokesperson for the film, Eno simply felt that he didn’t have time to submit the required paperwork and submit to the type of publicity campaign necessary. (Eno photo by Sergio Dionisio/Getty Images)

The scores to both “Where the Wild Things Are” and “Crazy Heart” make substantial use of music from songs that were written for the films. (Two songs from each film are eligible in the best original song category.)

Fox Searchlight did not include the "Crazy Heart" score in its “for your consideration” listing on the film’s screeners. Paramount and Warner Bros., however, did suggest nominations in the category on the "Lovely Bones" and “Wild Things” screeners, respectively.

In addition to “Wild Things” and “The Lovely Bones,” other ineligible scores that had been the subject of ads or FYC screener listings include “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (Nicholas Hooper), “The Blind Side” (Carter Burwell again), “Precious” (Mario Grigorov), “Bruno” (Erran Baron Cohen) and “Funny People” (Michael Andrews and Jason Schwartzman).

Overall, only 81 film scores qualified, giving the category by far the smallest field among the 15 categories for which ballots went out last week. By comparison, 274 films qualified for best picture, best film editing, best cinematography and the two sound categories.

-Thoughts on the state of the Original Score race?

The Kansas City Film Critics announce their winners!

Here they are:

Best Film-Up in the Air
Best Actress-Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
Best Actor-George Clooney, Up in the Air
Best Supporting Actress-Mo’Nique, Precious
Best Supporting Actor-Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Robert Altman Award for Best Director-Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Best Adapted Screenplay – Up in the Air
Best Original Screenplay – Inglourious Basterds
Best Documentary-Every Little Step
Best Foreign Language Film-Gomorrah
Best Animated Film-Up
Vince Koehler Award for Outstanding Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror Film-District 9

-Thoughts?

The legend that is John Foote gives us his first Oscar article as a part of The Awards Circuit!

...and if you're a fan of The Road or Crazy Heart, it should be of a great deal of interest to you. He's one of the best writers anywhere on the web, and he's a treat to work with. His inaugural article is here, and it's a must read, so check it out and enjoy!
-Thoughts on the article?

Today's Posters: The Last Station, Multiple Sarcasms, and The Eclipse

Thoughts?

Jack-in-the-Box Office for the weekend of January 1-3

“Avatar” made $68.3 at the Box Office this weekend and in doing so not only beat “Spider-Man 3” as the highest third weekend gross of all time but is almost $200 million beyond where “Titanic” was at the same point. As a result of this it would appear that in just a few weeks from now it potentially could be the highest grossing movie of all time, both domestically and worldwide.

While “Sherlock Holmes”, “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel”, and “It’s Complicated” all saw modest declines leading to impressive net grosses of $140.7, $157.3, and $59 million respectively, “The Blind Side”, “Up In the Air” and “The Princess and the Frog”, and “Did You Hear About the Morgans” all fared better than the previous weekend. While “Did You Hear About the Morgans?” has underperformed overall, “The Blind Side” crossed the $200 million mark to become one of the most profitable movies of 2009. “Up In the Air” has almost doubled its budget with a total gross of $45 million, and “The Princess and the Frog” has proven to have the staying power Disney hoped it would, as its $86 million dollar total gross suggest that in a week or so it could easily pass the $105 million dollar mark which equals its budget. While films from the previous year are often helped by a weak slate of releases for January, “The Princess and the Frog” stands to face the most challenges as a result of school’s starting up again after winter break.

Only three films had a decrease from last week. They were “Paranormal Activity” which suffered from being in its 15^th week and available on DVD. “A Christmas Carol” fell almost sixty percent after the holiday, and the one real box-office loser of the week was “Nine” which fell 22 percent by making only $4.1 million and bringing it’s total to $14 million. This is a terrible time for it to lose steam, as it could bottom out with only a fraction of its $80 million dollar budget, and while Oscar voters are currently filling out nomination ballots no less.

The real winners of course are always the films with the highest per-screen averages, and for the second weekend in a row that title went to “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus” which made $131,000 on four screens. Coming in second was “The Lovely Bones” which grossed $65,000 on three screens. Third place was the debut of “The White Ribbon” which made $61,300 on three screens. In fourth place, “Avatar” made $68,300,000 on 3,461 screens, and “Crazy Heart” rounded out the top five with $236,000 on twelve screens.

Gold Derby tries to predict the Golden Globe winners...

...and if you're curious what the group they assembled went with, you can find their picks here. I think that they spread themselves out well, and agree with them for the most part, but I think things could end up very interesting, especially if there's an upset or two.
-Thoughts?

Debuting later today on the blog...the first installment of Jack-In-The-Box Office!

Yes, in the next few hours our newest writer Jackson Truax will be starting up a column that will run on the blog every Sunday (much like how my DVD column comes out every Tuesday). He will be your guide to the weekend box office, letting you know what films, both big and small, scored while also detailing which struck out. It's one of many new features you should expect to see this year, so stay tuned!

The National Society of Film Critics announce their awards....

...and The Hurt Locker makes off quite well. Here are the winners:

Picture:
“The Hurt Locker”

Director:
Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”

Actor:
Jeremy Renner, “The Hurt Locker”

Actress:
Yolande Moreau, “Seraphine”

Supporting Actor:
Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds,” and Paul Schneider, “Bright Star” (tie)

Supporting Actress:
Mo’Nique, “Precious: Based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Screenplay:
Joel and Ethan Coen, “A Serious Man”

Foreign-Language Film:
“Summer Hours”

Non-Fiction Film:
“The Beaches of Agnes”

Cinematography:
Christian Berger, “The White Ribbon”

-Thoughts?

The Weinsteins aren't ready to give up on Nine...could that be good for its Oscar chances?

Well, maybe, maybe not, but this article in The Hollywood Reporter makes it clear that they still think it has a future in the awards season and won't just let the film die like other perceived (I say perceived since it's too early to call Nine a failure) disappointments, namely Amelia and The Lovely Bones. We'll see what happens, but The Weinstein Co. is keeping the film in a large amount of theaters, and it's a good article to check out, so, well...check it out.
-Do you think Nine will end up with a Best Picture nomination?

Avatar passes $300 million on the same day that The Blind Side passes $200 million...

...one of which was highly unexpected, one of which was not (no points for guessing which is which). I suppose now is as good a time as any to ask the question: Can Avatar pass the total gross of The Dark Knight?
-What do you think Avatar's final Box Office take will be?

Greetings and Salutations!

Hello to all of the Awards Circuit staff and readers,

I hope my bio and pic that just went up on the site give you some sense of who I am. I want to add what a pleasure and privilege it is to get to be working on site with so many amazing writers. It is also a great honor of mine to be able to be read by everyone in the Awards Circuit universe. I look forward to interacting with all of you via the blog and message board throughout this unique Oscar season, and of course, all year long. As Billy Crystal would say, see you at the movies.

Cheers,

New Writers, New Blog, New Blog Web Address

As you can see on the ABOUT US section on the site, we welcome two new writers to our Awards Circuit family. John Foote, esteemed film critic, author, and professor from Canada. Also, Jackson Truax, a Los Angeles based writer and filmmaker. Both of these gentlemen will bring something new and exciting to the Circuit so watch out for it.

Also, note the new web address from the old, Oscar Igloo into our brand name, The Awards Circuit. Please change your bookmarks.

Also, we have soft launched our new Blog that will replace this one, unless any of you feel otherwise. Look HERE, and comment on it. Let us know what you think?

Hope you all enjoyed your New Year.

Academy Idol 3: Top 11 Results

Comment. Surprised by the Results? Did you, the readers, just name the Top 10 Best Picture Nominees?

When we look back on 2009, what will be the movie we remember?

Essentially, what movie or movies will stand the test of time and either sum up the year or just be something that you keep coming back to? My guesses are that Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, and Up in the Air will fit in there, to one degree or another. I'd throw out (500) Days of Summer, District 9, and Star Trek too, with Paranormal Activity as a wild-card, much like The Blair Witch Project in the last decade.
-What films will you remember?

Let's start 2010 off right by looking at what films to look forward to in the new year...

Indeed, there will be hundreds of films that come out this year, and some will be great, some will be awful, and plenty will be just average. We have no way of knowing which are which at the current moment, but I'll throw out a partial list of movies that I'm interested in seeing, and you can do the same. As a resource, here's a list of some of the films coming out in 2010 (There are a lot of parts to the article, so be sure to check out all of the installments). Here are some of the films I'm curious about:
The Adjustment Bureau, Area 51, The Baster, The Beaver, Black Swan, Blue Valentine, Born to be a Star, Breaking Upwards, Brooklyn's Finest, Cemetery Junction, Chloe, The Company Man, The Conspirator, Cop Out, Daybreakers, Dinner for Schmucks, Don McKay, Due Date, Easy A, Enter the Void, The Expendables, The Extra Man, Fair Game, The Fighter, Fish Tank, Frozen, Georgia, Get Low, Get Me to the Gig, The Ghost Writer, Going the Distance, The Greatest, Greenberg, The Green Hornet, Green Zone, Grown Ups, Harry Brown, Hereafter, Hesher, High School, Holy Rollers, Hot Tub Time Machine, Howl, Inception, Iron Man 2, It's Kind of a Funny Story, Jack Goes Boating, The Joneses, Kick-Ass, The Kids Are Alright, The Killer Inside Me, Knight and Day, The Last Word, Leaves of Grass, Let Me In, Life During Wartime, Little Fockers, London Boulevard, Love and Other Drugs, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Love Ranch, Main Street, The Mechanic, Mr. Nobody, Multiple Sarcasms, My Own Love Song, My Soul to Take, Nailed, Never Let Me Go, Paul, Piranha 3D, Predators, Red Dawn, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Shanghai, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, The Tree of Life, Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, Wolfman, Your Highness, Youth in Revolt. There are more, trust me, but there's a good start to the list.
-What are you looking forward to this year?

Happy New Year!!!

From all of us at The Awards Circuit, we wish you a happy and a healthy next 365 days!
-Fingers crossed for some great movies in 2010!