 The Academy Awards will be revealing their nominations on Tuesday morning and we here are gearing up for the big announcement. We will be LIVE Blogging the morning of beginning at 8:15am ET and going on until about 9:00am.
The Staff of the Awards Circuit consisting of Anna Belickis, Joseph Braverman, John H. Foote, Robert Hamer, Joey Magidson, and Michael Ward have put together their picks of who and what films will be nominated on Tuesday morning. There are some interesting choices with some ballsy moves as well. The Official Predictions will be updated in the coming hours. For now, enjoy what the staff have chosen and start discussing your picks. Go here or Click onStaff Predictions.
Read more on The Staff Unveils their Final Oscar Predictions…
 Best Picture: The Descendants
Best Director: Alexander Payne (The Descendants)
Best Actor: Brad Pitt (Moneyball)
Best Actress: Viola Davis (The Help)
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer (Beginners)
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids)
Best Animated Film: Rango
Best Film Yet to Open in Iowa: We Need to Talk About Kevin AND Project Nim
Read more on Iowa Film Critics Go for ‘Descendants’…
Categories: News, Precursors Tags: Alexander Payne, Beginners, Brad Pitt, Bridesmaids, Christopher Plummer, Melissa McCarthy, Moneyball, news, Precursors, Project Nim, Rango, The Descendants, The Help, Viola Davis, We Need To Talk About Kevin
 As the year stands behind us and we gear up for the upcoming award shows including the Critics Choice Awards which will be broadcast on VH1, Thursday, January 12th @ 8pm ET. Make sure you tune in.
As for our own critics here at the Awards Circuit, I am pleased to present the Staff Writers choices for the Top 10 Best Films of 2011. Having a hand in hiring most of these writers that are on board, I am also eager to see the eclectic tastes as we try to form a non-consensus here at the site. We fully embrace how we are all different and look at film in a different way from our next critic or reader. We respect and we view with curiosity. I sincerely hope the readership of the Awards Circuit will share your Top Ten films in the comment section because I’m eager to hear what you guys and gals loved in 2011 as well.
Read more on Awards Circuit Staff Top Ten of 2011…
Categories: Community, Editor, Staff Tags: Beginners, Bellflower, Best of the year, Bridesmaids, Certified Copy, Crazy Stupid Love, Drive, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Horrible Bosses, Hugo, Insidious, Melancholia, Midnight in Paris, Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol, Moneyball, Of Gods And Men, Project Nim, Rango, Red State, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Shame, The Adventures Of Tintin, the artist, The Beaver, The Descendants, The Help, The Ides of March, The Interrupters, The Muppets, The Tree of Life, Top Tens, war horse, Warrior, We Need To Talk About Kevin, Weekend, Win Win, Young Adult
 A general trend that has been observed (and joked about) here on The Awards Circuit is that Joey and I rarely agree on, well, anything. Our split goes far beyond select movies and into what I’m convinced are entirely different philosophies on film criticism. For a while it was confounding to me, and I’m sure to him, yet over time it has become a source of endearing fascination. It also provides me with hope whenever he dislikes a highly anticipated release and adds – to me at least – an added bit of legitimacy when we are both totally on board with a film (like the immaculate Blue Valentine in 2010). However, there are times when I hate to (mostly) agree with my colleague, and Lynne Ramsay’s long-gestating follow-up to Morvern Callar - one of my most anticipated films of 2011 – is one of them.
The film, based on an intriguing but overweening epistolary novel by Lionel Shriver, is about the mother of a psychopath named Kevin who was convicted of a school massacre some years earlier. The mother, Eva, must now deal with the outer and inner torment she suffers as she pieces together her part in his destruction. Was Kevin simply a bad kid, or did her own reluctance toward parenting him contribute to all of this? It’s an interesting question, and those of you thinking you’ll be challenged by it should temper your expectations, as Ms. Ramsay prefers to dazzle with creepy effects than have you carefully consider what’s behind them. Read more on We Need to Talk About Kevin (**)…
The Year-In-Review continues with some non-traditional citations on certain films and performances that did or did not make head way in 2011. What are your choices for “Limited Performance” of the year? or Most Underrated Film? or share what you thought about the Year-in-TV as I dish out my favorites in Television Drama and Comedies. Read more after jump. Read more on Year-In-Review: Editor’s Specialty Awards…
Categories: Article, Community, Editor Tags: Alexander Payne, American Horror Story, american idol, Andy Serkis, arthur christmas, Bennett Miller, Berenice Bejo, Best Animated Feature, Best of the year, bill hader, Boardwalk Empire, Brad Pitt, Bridesmaids, Bryce Dallas Howard, Carey Mulligan, Christina Hendricks, Christine Baranski, dancing with the stars, Dexter, Drive, Eric Stonestreet, George Clooney, glee, Harry Escott, Hugo, it;s always sunny in philadelphia, jane lynch, Jason Segel, jean dujardin, Jessica Chastain, Jessica Lange, John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, Julie Bowen, Kelly MacDonald, Kristen Wiig, mad men, Martin Scorsese, Max Greenfield, Maya Rudolph, Melissa McCarthy, Michael Fassbender, Michel Hazanavicius, modern family, Moneyball, New Girl, Nicolas Winding Refn, pariah, Paul Feig, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Ryan Gosling, saturday night live, Score, Sean Penn, Shame, sofia vergara, Steve McQueen, Super 8, Survivor, Terrence Malick, the artist, The Descendants, The Help, The Muppets, the office, The Tree of Life, The Walking Dead, the x factor, Tilda Swinton, True Blood, tv, Ty Burrell, Up All Night, We Need To Talk About Kevin
- Anna Belickis concluded her countdown of the worst, most vile, most inhumane offenses to art that graced the TV screen last year. What was the worst of the worst, and what was the runner-up?
Read more on Circuit Round-Up (Week Ending 01/01)…
Categories: Blog Tags: Circuit Round-Up, Crazy Stupid Love, Declaration Of War, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, H8R, Hugo, Jane Eyre, Project Nim, Sleeping Beauty, The Beaver, The Descendants, The Tree of Life, war horse, We Need To Talk About Kevin
 For Your Consideration: Best Achievement in Directing
Film: “We Need to Talk About Kevin”
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Writer: Lynne Ramsay & Rory Kinnear
Realistic Nominations: Best Actress (Tilda Swinton)
Oscar Scene: Kevin’s bow (after the massacre).
Few women find themselves in Oscar’s conversation for Best Director. Most recently we saw Kathryn Bigelow win her much deserved Oscar for “The Hurt Locker” but there have been plenty of women worthy of citation over the past decade. Sofia Coppola was nominated for writing and directing the independent classic, “Lost in Translation” but what of Julie Taymor for her wonderful adaptation of the Beatles’ classic songs in “Across the Universe.” Before the “Twilight” franchise, Catherine Hardwicke put her stamp on the indie film, “Thirteen” starring Evan Rachel Wood and Oscar Winner Holly Hunter. Obviously we’ve seen Jane Campion awarded for her work in “The Piano” but she brought to life the beautiful “Bright Star” and “Portrait of a Lady,” both ignored by the Academy.
Read more on Circuit Consideration: Lynne Ramsay for “We Need to Talk About Kevin”…
 BEST MOVIE BY A WOMAN – tied
- The Iron Lady
- We Need To Talk About Kevin
- Pariah
- The Whistleblower
BEST MOVIE ABOUT WOMEN
- The Help
- Albert Nobbs
- Cracks
- Rid Of Me
BEST WOMAN STORYTELLER
Screenwriting Award
Read more on Women Film Critics Circle Awards…
Greetings, readers! It’s that time again…
What the hell? We’ve barely recovered from Thanksgiving and it’s already New Year’s Eve?! Oh wait; it’s just a barely-veiled rehash of that cloying, paper-thin romantic comedy pretending to be some kind of “mosaic” of love. Phew! Anyway, it’s looking like a Razzie contender based on the overwhelming critical consensus. Despite that, will this film be the box office success that its predecessor was? Though it has far more competition than Valentine’s Day’s opening weekend, online buzz suggests that audiences will repeat their habit of seeing movies almost destined to bore them to death, which will be enough for a $20-25 million haul. Read more on Weekend Openings (December 9-11)…
Categories: Weekend Openings Tags: Charlize Theron, Diablo Cody, Ezra Miller, Gary Oldman, golden globe hopeful, Jason Reitman, Madonna, New Year's Eve, Oscar hopefuls, The Sitter, Tilda Swinton, tinker tailor soldier spy, W.E., We Need To Talk About Kevin, Weekend Openings, Young Adult
 The trailer for Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin hits. Is Tilda Swinton and Ezra Miller set up for Oscar success? Some think so. Check it out after the jump. Read more on Trailer: We Need to Talk About Kevin…
 Here is the full list of nominations:
BEST BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM
SENNA
SHAME
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
TYRANNOSAUR
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
BEST DIRECTOR
Ben Wheatley – KILL LIST
Steve McQueen – SHAME
Tomas Alfredson – TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
Paddy Considine – TYRANNOSAUR
Lynne Ramsay – WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
Read more on British Independent Film Nominations!…
Read more on Circuit Round-Up (Week Ending 10/16)…
Categories: Circuit Round-Up Tags: Beautiful Boy, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Circuit Round-Up, dancing with the stars, Horrible Bosses, Oscar race, Real Steel, remake, Ryan Gosling, Steve Martin, The Awards Circuit readers, The Skin I Live In, The Thing, The Tree of Life, We Need To Talk About Kevin
 If you were to ask me about my thoughts on ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin’ directly after seeing it back in September, I would have said that it was one of the biggest disappointments of 2011 (besides ‘The Tree of Life’ and ‘Attack the Block’) for me. Stewing over it some more, I’ve come to find that the pluses outweigh the minuses here. I still think that I like it less than almost all of the other Oscar pundits, but the excellent lead performance by Tilda Swinton and the unsettlingly good turn by Ezra Miller (he’s actually the film’s highlight in my eyes) supersede co-writer/director Lynne Ramsay’s filmmaking missteps. It’s a love it or hate it type of direction she takes, and if not for Swinton and Miller, I might be leaning to towards the latter. When it comes to the acting, the film is rather top notch for the most part. When it comes to the writing and the directing, however…it’s a whole other story. Too flawed to be the masterpiece that the reviews out of Cannes suggested, this still is a unique enough take on familiar material to be worth the recommendation from me, even if it’s not quite on the level as a somewhat similar film from earlier this year called ‘Beautiful Boy’. Still, the pros outweigh the cons here.
Read more on We Need to Talk About Kevin (***)…
As a continuing feature here at Awards Circuit, here are the latest ratings provided by the MPAA Ratings Board – The Classification and Ratings Administration (CARA).
In this edition, dated 9/28/11, two Oscar hopefuls, “Carnage” and “We Need To Talk About Kevin”, go in front of the Board and a whole host of independent and potentially straight-to-video releases get their marks. Curiously, a film known as “The Good Doctor” starring Orlando Bloom, Michael Pena, Troy Garity, Rob Morrow, and Taraji P. Henson won a ratings appeal but still lacks domestic distribution.
Read more on MPAA Ratings Bulletin No. 2191 (9/28/11)…
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