 In case you missed or didn’t make through our podcast on Sunday, we announced the winners of the Awards Circuit Community Awards for Year 2000. All I can say is, when the readers have favorites, you guys and gals make it known. Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream was the big winner with five ACCAs including Motion Picture, Director (Darren Aronofsky), and Lead Actress (Ellen Burstyn). The film was also runner-up in the six other categories it was nominated in. Christian Bale won Best Actor for his portrayal in American Psycho while Benicio del Toro mirrored his Oscar win in Supporting Actor in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, which also won Adapted Screenplay and Cast Ensemble. Kate Hudson beat out her co-star in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous and took the Supporting Actress prize along with Crowe’s screenplay being rewarded in the Original category. Heavy favorite Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, directed by Ang Lee, won some technicals including a runner-up spot in Best Picture. Oscar’s Best Picture Winner Gladiator won a couple of technical awards as well.
Starting Monday, July 30th, we will open up voting for ACCA: Best of the Decades. All the winnners, chosen by the Awardscircuit.com readership will face-off in all the categories with one film and many performances being named the “Best of the Decade.” Gear up.
Full winners of ACCA 2000 are listed below after the jump. Read more on “Requiem for a Dream” takes top honors with Awards Circuit Readership!…
 I’ll admit it…I’m a sucker for almost all of Disney’s sports movies, and a complete sucker for Kevin Costner’s forays into the genre, mostly baseball related (I adore ‘For Love of the Game’ in a way that few people seem to). This made a teaming up of Costner and the studio seem like only a matter of time, and according to The Hollywood Reporter here, that’s just what’s happening. The movie is called ‘McFarland’, and he’ll be the coach of a sports team in that town. After the jump you can see a little more on what the film is about, but count me in. I’m always down for sports flicks, and this likely will be no exception…
Read more on Kevin Costner to star in Disney’s latest sports film…
 That’s perhaps the nicest way to describe The Hollywood Reporter’s newest cover story of the tragedy that occurred last week in Aurora, Colorado. Admittedly, any shocking event associated with pop culture – no matter how loose the connection – are going to inevitably be tied together when artists express their feelings over it. So while I wasn’t exactly supportive of the personal artwork that started juxtaposing a “Grieving Dark Knight” with the Colorado massacre, especially since it implied that a fictional character was impacted by a tragedy that took the lives of real people, I respected the honest attempts by individuals to convey their sadness in a creative, unselfish way. It is also inevitable – if somewhat disheartening – to have such a tragedy followed by the usual political grandstanding on gun control, mental illness, and violence in entertainment before imploding on its own bluster and having nothing to show for it. We have come to expect this from our politicians and from less scrupulous pundits.
Read more on Tacky?…
 I had the privilege of being invited to represent The Awards Circuit at the “Ruby Sparks” New York Press Day, held at the Crosby Street Hotel in Lower Manhattan. It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of this film, so I obviously jumped at the opportunity. The schedule had roundtable and 1 on 1 interviews arranged for directors Jonathan Dayton/Valerie Faris, star Paul Dano, and co-star/writer Zoe Kazan. I participated in all of the roundtables, and was able to secure 1 on 1 interviews with Dano, Dayton, and Faris. Unfortunately, Kazan was unavailable for 1 on 1. I think there’s some interesting tidbits found here, and it just highlights more an absolutely delightful movie. I chose to organize this article by the talent involved, since each were brought in to speak separately. I pulled out the best quotes and citations to share.
Read more on Talking “Ruby Sparks” with its Cast and Filmmakers…
 In the wake of the Aurora, Colorado tragedy, Warner Brothers has decided to move Ruben Fleischer’s Gangster Squad starring Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, and Josh Brolin to January 2013.
The film, which tells the story of the LAPD trying to keep the East Coast mafia out of Los Angeles during the 40s and 50s, has been reported to have scenes of a shooting inside a movie theater. Some pundits have speculated if the move is truly based on the tragedy or was it a sign of the lack of faith in the project. Read more on Fleischer’s “Gangster Squad” moves to 2013!…
 As Gold Geeks, or award obsessives in laymen’s terms, we know that it is easy to see that winning an Oscar is as much about the campaign a studio can handle as it is the performance given or quality of the film. The studios and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have endured many complaints regarding the politics of the Oscar season and the ease with which people seem to violate the rules. However, today the Academy took some preventative measures to shore up loop holes and clarify the rules. In a press release, the Academy highlighted the new updated regulations in place for this awards season including changes to screenings that feature live filmmaker participation, the formats on which members may receive screeners, and limitations on how mail, email and websites may be used in campaigning. Check it out after the jump!
Read more on AMPAS announces campaign rules for 85th Academy Awards…
 Matthew Lillard, best known for his whimsical antics as Stu in Wes Craven’s Scream (1996) and most recently as the “other man” in Alexander Payne’s Oscar-nominated, The Descendants (2011). Lillard will be making his directorial debut with his new film Fat Kid Rules the World adapted from the novel of the same name written by KL Going. The adaptation is written by Michael M.B. Galvin and Peter Speakman. The movie premiered on March 9th, 2012 at SXSW in Austin to positive reviews. Read more on Poster and Red Band Trailer Hit for Matthew Lillard’s directorial debut, “Fat Kid Rules the World”…
 Since Ang Lee’s involvement was first announced, Life of Pi had been near – if not at – the top of nearly every Oscar prediction on the web (including from yours truly). With the first trailer hitting the web this morning, buzz no doubt will only intensify from here. In case you’ve been out of the loop for the past several months, Lee’s latest is an adaptation of the 2001 bestseller about a young man stranded on a lifeboat with a tiger that ends up being about God and the meaning of life as seen through the myriad viewpoints of Christianity, Islam and Hinduism.
Watch the trailer after the jump. Read more on First Trailer for Ang Lee’s “Life of Pi” premieres!…
 It’s not often that you get to sit down with Tim Burton’s art director, the storyboard artist who worked on the Jurassic Park series, or meet the man who helped Gore Verbinski sell Pirates of the Caribbean to executives. But that’s exactly what happen on the last Saturday of Comic-Con when I was invited to sit down with storyboard artists Dave Lowery (Oz the Great and Powerful), Derek Gogol (Pirates of the Caribbean franchise), Trevor Goring (Real Steel), and art directors Suzuki Ingerslev (True Blood), Rick Heinrichs (Dark Shadows), and Dominic Watkins (Snow White and the Huntsman). Movies being an inherently visual medium, it was great to hear the stories from these creators on how they take a script and turn it into a visual spectacle. It was also interesting to hear from them about the business of their jobs, from projects that didn’t work out to how they use images or sets they built ultimately help to sell the film to executives. There are some real gems and exclusive scoops about upcoming movies in these interviews so check them out!
Read more on Comic-Con Interview: Storyboard Artists and Art Directors of Film and TV…
Categories: Article, Blog, Interview Tags: Comic-Con, Dark Shadows, interviews, Oz the Great and Powerful, pirates of the caribbean, Real Steel, Snow White and the Huntsman, the art directors guild, True Blood, upcoming projects
 With the big announcement yesterday of the titles that will be debuting/playing at the Toronto Film Festival, the first Plot Synopsis for Terrence Malick’s new film “To the Wonder” was revealed. The film stars Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Olga Kurylenko, and Javier Bardem, and seems to be Malick’s most overt relationship drama in some time, though there are still rumblings that it’s also his most experimental one as well (which would actually be saying something). After the jump you can see the short summary of the picture, and it sets things up very nicely. I may not have been big on ‘The Tree of Life’ last year, but I recognize his talent, and this one has my attention in a big way. You can find the synopsis below.
Read more on Official Plot Synopsis Released for Terence Malick’s “To the Wonder”…
 Paranoia swept through America as the terrible fear of communism brought about the McCarthy era, a nightmare in which a US senator, Joseph McCarthy somehow wielded the power to ruin the lives of hard-working Americans who might have attended a communist meeting or two years before, usually in curiosity to find out what it was all about. It was guilt by accusation and guilt by association and many actors, directors, and writers had their careers destroyed by this man, who routinely ruined lives of artists across the United States. It would take the courage of producers such as Kirk Douglas to break the Black List, hiring writers on it, who for years had been forced to write under another name. The nation watched, fascinated as McCarthy was brought down live on television by the words, “Have you no decency sir”.
Read more on Best of the Decades: 1950s…
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In case you missed or didn’t make through our podcast on Sunday, we announced the winners of the Awards Circuit Community Awards for Year 2000. All I can say is, when the readers have favorites, you guys and gals make it known. Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream was the big winner with five ACCAs including Motion Picture, Director (Darren Aronofsky), and Lead Actress (Ellen Burstyn). The film was also runner-up in the six other categories it was nominated in. Christian Bale won Best Actor for his portrayal in American Psycho while Benicio del Toro mirrored his Oscar win in Supporting Actor in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, which also won Adapted Screenplay and Cast Ensemble. Kate Hudson beat out her co-star in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous and took the Supporting Actress prize along with Crowe’s screenplay being rewarded in the Original category. Heavy favorite Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, directed by Ang Lee, won some technicals including a runner-up spot in Best Picture. Oscar’s Best Picture Winner Gladiator won a couple of technical awards as well.
