Never Mind Pop Film

With all of last night devoted to the Academy's proclivity to reward films that show itself in a positive light, The Artist took home a great deal of awards. But did it deserve them? The floor is open...

With the Academy Awards on Sunday night seeing all of the Oscar nominated films this year before then will be pretty difficult. To make things easier for non-filmgoers Amazon is having a sale on films like The Descendants, Hugo,The Artist, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, up to half off! Grab them while you can.

Every year the British Academy of Film and Television Arts releases artist depictions of the nominated films for Best Picture. 2012's collection stands head and shoulders over recent years. Thanks to Hey You Guys, all five nominated film brochures are available online (The Artist, Drive, The Descendants, The Help and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy). Highlighted are my top three selections.

(this post comes from Darren Mooney of The Movie Blog)
Oscar season is on us again. Although, to be fair, it's been going since at least November last year. It's something of a tradition that, the closer we get to the awards themselves, the more certain the outcome seems. To a large extent, that's still true this year. The vast majority of pundits seem to have settled on the belief that George Clooney will pick up the Best Actor award, Christopher Plummer will pick up the Best Supporting Actor award and Meryl Streep will take home her first Best Actress Oscar in quite some time. While there are those who would disagree with these assessments (for example, I think Viola Davis might pose a credible threat to Streep), those are the broadly-agreed major categories. However, the announcement of the nominees last week threw the Best Picture race into a bit of uncertainty, creating the impression that The Artist doesn't quite have the award locked down.

Again, I'm going to …

The Descendants What it's likely to get nominated for: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor What I'd like it to be nominated for: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor

Alexander Payne has nailed the zeitgeist of the past decade and seemingly touched off again with this new one. The tale of one man's grief while pulling his family back together was the right amount of heart without reaching into the saccharin bag that too many films resort to.


The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
What it's likely to get nominated for: Best Actress, Editing, Score
What I'd like it to be nominated for: Best Actress, Best Director
We're in a reversal from last year where The King's Speech was almost the only feel good splendor in the field. This year Dragon Tattoo is the juxtaposed film against heart-warmers like The Artist, The Descendants, War Horse, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Daring the Academy to come out of the closet regarding their genre fetishism may prove too stron…

As a classic movie and silent film enthusiast, I felt it was my duty to go on and watch this similarly styled film.  Knowing from interviews of Director Michel Hazanavicius that The Artist was filled with nods to classics like Singin' in the Rain and Citizen Kane, I was hoping to be touched by this film as I had been touched by its predecessors.  
George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is at the height of his popularity in 1927 Hollywood.  Applauded both on the screen in his action films, and in front of the audience thanks to his dancing skills and pet dog's tricks, Valentin barely misses a beat when an adoring fan slips between the policeman barrier and bumps into him outside of a premiere.  Why not enjoy a few laughs and poses with this pretty young lady?
Valentin's wife (Penelope Ann Miller) doesn't seem to agree with that sentiment the next morning, however.  Sour-faced and jealous, she paints a portrait of Valentin's life at home that sharply contrasts his carefree…

The Artist and Take Shelter each received five nominations from the Indie Spirit Awards this morning. Drive, The Descendants, 50/50 and Beginners will fill out the competition for Best Feature. I was a little surprised that Win Win didn't make it into the crowd, but nominations for Michael Shannon and Ryan Gosling more than make up for it.

The rest of the nominees:

Best Director:
Mike Mills (Beginners)
Nicholas W Refn ( Drive)
Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter)
Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist)
Alexander Payne (The Descendants)

Robert Altman Award: Margin Call

Best Int’l Film:
A Separation
Melancholia
Shame
The Kid With a Bike
Tyrannosaur

Best Male Lead:
Demian Bichir (A Better Life)
Jean Dujardin (The Artist)
Ryan Gosling (Drive)
Woody Harrelson (Rampart)
Michael Shannon (Take Shelter)

Best Female Lead:
Lauren Ambrose (Think of Me)
Rachel Harris (Natural Selection)
Adepero Oduye (Pariah)
Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene)
Michelle Williams (My Week with Marilyn)

Best Supp Male:
Albert Brooks (Drive)
John Ha…

Telluride starts tomorrow and for many of us the lineup would be a mystery until today. With the list of films released I think it's safe to say that this is a solid group. Notably, A Dangerous Method, The Artist, and Albert Nobbs. More announcements are expected in the days to come. After the jump check out the official feature films listed.
38th Telluride Film Festival is proud to present the following new feature films to play in its main program, the ‘SHOW’:

ALBERT NOBBS (d. Rodrigo Garcia, U.S., 2011)
THE ARTIST (d. Michel Hazanavicius, France, 2011)
BECOMING BERT STERN (d. Shannah Laumeister, U.S., 2011)
BITTER SEEDS (d. Micha X. Peled, U.S., 2011)
BONSÁI (d. Cristián Jiménez, Chile, 2011)
A DANGEROUS METHOD (d. David Cronenberg, U.K.-Switzerland-U.S.-Canada, 2011)
THE DESCENDANTS (d. Alexander Payne, U.S., 2011)
DIANA VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL (d. Lisa Immordino-Vreeland, U.S., 2011)
FOOTNOTE (d. Joseph Cedar, Israel, 2011)
THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD (d. Joshua Marston…