 Read the Press Release:
Beverly Hills, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will screen the first Best Picture winner, “Wings,” starring Clara Bow, Charles “Buddy” Rogers, Richard Arlen and Gary Cooper, as part of a celebration of Paramount Pictures’ 100th anniversary, on Wednesday, January 18, at 7:30 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The evening will premiere a restoration by Paramount Pictures in cooperation with the Academy Film Archive, with live musical accompaniment by Clark Wilson on the Allen Theatre Organ.
The Academy is pleased to return the Best Picture winner “Wings,” which first premiered in 1927, to the big screen in a vibrant and meticulously restored version that includes the original color tints and re-creates the Handschiegl color process used for additional visual effects. Organist Clark Wilson, who has accompanied silent films at theaters around the country including the Walt Disney Concert Hall, will offer live organ accompaniment that provides an authentic period recreation and also serves to bring the film’s emotional power to life for modern audiences.
Read more on Oscar’s First Best Picture Winner Returns to the Big Screen!…
 Read the press release:
LOS ANGELES, CA (December 2, 2011) – The Producers Guild of America (PGA) announced today the Documentary Theatrical Motion Picture nominees that will advance in the voting process for the 23rd Annual Producers Guild Awards.
The nominated films, listed below in alphabetical order, are:
BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE: THE TRAVELS OF A TRIBE CALLED QUEST
BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK
PROJECT NIM
SENNA
THE UNION
Read more on Documentary Theatrical Motion Picture Nominations for the 2012 PGA!…
As the season kicks off into full swing, the precursors will be hitting by the tons each and every day. we will be keeping a tabulation of the awards as they come on our new PRECURSORS page. You can see all the winners for each film and performance side-by-side and see who’s leading in the pack. If we miss an award, please write the Editor at claytondavis@awardscircuit.com so it can be corrected.
Read more on New Precursors Page is LIVE!…
Hope y’all enjoyed your Turkey Day last week, folks. Now that your hangover is hopefully recovered, let’s take a look at what’s opening this weekend:
Well…um, that’s interesting. No wide releases this weekend. Oh well, that’s not so bad; the limited circuit has had two very sexually daring movies making their theatrical foreplay. The more anticipated of the two is Steve McQueen’s Shame, about a sex addict whose life spins out of control when his troubled sister moves in with him. The film has been acclaimed by critics – including our own John and Clayton – as a powerful, beautifully-directed cinematic gem with a tour de force performance by Volpi Cup-winner Michael Fassbender. Such widespread kudos would be a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination were it not for one little problem: NC-17. Yep, that dreaded MPAA rating usually spells doom for films trying to reach an audience, as it not only bars the film from being shown in most theaters but the label is often perceived as “pornographic” to mainstream audiences and conservative organizations like the Academy. Then again, it appears as though this film could single-handedly bring back legitimacy to the sexually explicit drama, and AMPAS could reward that with a Best Actor nomination for the ubiquitous thespian. Keep an eye out also for a Supporting Actress nod for Carey Mulligan if that happens. Read more on Weekend Openings (December 2-4)…
 In a cinematic world where James Bond and Jason Bourne are the current standard bearers for spy movies, something like ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ should have come as a nice breath of fresh air…a low tech and character based look at the type of material that usually involves shootouts and explosions. Alas, something was lost in translation here and the end result is a mixed bag at best. To be fair, there are things to like in ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’, but much of those positives are lost in the shuffle of an overlong and middling spy thriller that gives new meaning to the term “slow burn”. Gary Oldman makes the iconic role of George Smiley his own, but he’s about the only thing in this bleak film that I have no real issue with. I understand that a Cold War set flick should be bleak, but this is a movie without any joy and it affects the audience watching it. What should be a tense search for a mole in MI6 becomes merely a chore to sit through. It’s not necessarily the fault of director Tomas Alfredson or co-writers Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan, but more in the issues in taking John Le Carre’s well known and long spy novel to the big screen. The TV version took 7 hours. This one only takes a little more than 2, but it feels just about 7 hours long in the end…
Read more on Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (**½)…
Categories: Film Reviews Tags: benedict cumberbatch, book adaptation, Christian McKay, Cirian Hinds, Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, John Hurt, Mark Strong, Oscar hopeful, tinker tailor soldier spy, Toby Jones, Tom Hardy
 As with anything else in life, all good things must come to an end…and here is no exception. This is my last “Sizing Up” column of the year, though have no fear about other categories being covered. Robert is going to be diving into the techs soon enough in the coming days and weeks (beginning with the Best Art Direction category, I believe), so be on the lookout for that. He’s more than got them covered. Anyway, this is the last one, and tackles the Best Original Screenplay race. I freely admit that my success rate is still to be determined with this year’s crop of articles, and that I waited until after the first precursors this week to try and enlighten me a bit, but that kind of comes with the territory of Oscar prognostication. I’m a bit more confident this year than usual about them, just like I was with Adapted Screenplay a few weeks back (sorry for the delay). It’s going to be a top heavy list, but it’s still a deep one in my opinion. I did my best to be thorough though, so credit where credit is due for that! I think most of you will find these rankings pretty interesting, but we shall see about that one. Enough delays though, let’s get on with this final list of mine and go forth and size up the Best Original Screenplay field!
Read more on Sizing Up the Best Original Screenplay Field…
 16th Annual Golden Satellite Nominations:
Motion Picture
- The Artist
- The Descendants
- Drive
- The Help
- Hugo
- Midnight in Paris
- Moneyball
- Shame
- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
- War Horse
Director
- Tomas Alfredson, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Read more on Golden Satellite Nominations!…
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