Toronto: 'Eastern' Wins Northern Prize

Eastern Promises, David Cronenberg's crime thriller starring Viggo Mortensen, won the top prize at the just completed Toronto International Film Festival. As conventional wisdom states, that means this unconventional film is now officially a "frontrunner" in this year's awards race. Nevertheless, we'll have to wait and see if its grim subject matter doesn't turn off older Academy members like the duo's last outing, A History of Violence, although that didn't hurt The Departed last year.

Shaping up to be this year's Little Miss Sunshine is Jason Reitman's quirky look at teenage pregnancy Juno, with no less then Roger Ebert predicting an Oscar nod for its 20-year old leading lady, Ellen Page. See for yourself with the official trailer for the comedy, which boasts a fine supporting cast that includes such favorites as Allison Janney, J.K. Simmons and Jennifer Garner, herself receiving some early Oscar buzz.

Cate Blanchett's two diverse biopics continued to receive mixed responses, even if everyone was enthralled by her own performances as the Virgin Queen and the Folkie King in, respectively, Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Todd Haynes' I'm Not There.

However, the most divisive film of the festival, and likely the year, was Alan Ball's Nothing is Private. The bleak drama features a controversial sex scene between Aaron Eckhart's character and a 13-year-old Arab-American girl (played by 19-year-old Summer Bishil) that the ultra-conservative Fox News likens to "kiddie porn". Here's what the trades had to say about it.

Other notables at the fest:

• Breakfast With Scot: In this, the so-called "gay hockey movie", Tom Cavanaugh and Ben Shenkman star as a couple who look after their flamboyant nephew (think Ugly Betty's Justin, only in Canada).
• A Jihad for Love: This documentary, filmed in secret over a six-year period, examines the often dangerous lives of gay Muslims.
• Then She Found Me: Helen Hunt stars in her directorial debut, where she plays a baby-wanting woman who meets her long absent birth mother, played by ... Bette Midler?!
• Trumbo: Blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo is the subject of this doc, which, considering its subject, is sure to nab an Oscar nom.
• And continuing their road to glory: Atonement, In the Valley of Elah, Into the Wild, Michael Clayton and No Country for Old Men, another wacky crime caper (à la Fargo) from the Coen Brothers, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Woody Harrelson.
• Or not: Rendition and Cassandra's Dream.

Even with some promising standouts, the general consensus is that ... there is no consensus. Which means it should be an exciting awards season this year.

UPDATE: Here's the official trailer for Atonement. Anyone else reminded just a tad of The Children's Hour?

Links via GoldDerby.LATimes.com, TIFF07.ca, AwardsDaily.com, RogerEbert.SunTimes.com, YouTube.com, EW.com, EdgeBoston.com, Blogs.MercuryNews.com and MoviesBlog.MTV.com.

Awards Watch: The Host

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that Jon Stewart will return as this year's Oscar host.

He is a good fit this year considering that a couple of the politically-charged films making the festival rounds lately (Redacted, In the Valley of Elah, Rendition) are shaping up to be strong contenders in this year's race.

Stewart was funny (for the most part) the last time he took the gig in 2005, although I could have done without the by-then redundant Brokeback Mountain parody, which never should have been included (none of the other Best Picture nominees were made fun of in such a way, so why single out the "gay cowboy" movie? Come on Academy, you should have known better).

In other award news:

• Gil Cates will return as producer of the Oscar telecast for the record-setting 14th time (his last time at the helm was also 2005).
• The Academy's music branch has banned the "for your consideration" soundtrack CDs studios sent out for Original Song and Original Score contenders.
• More banning: the Directors Guild of America won't allow DVD screeners to be sent to their members.
• And speaking of DVD screeners, Fox Searchlight gets a jump on the competition by sending out the very fist batch of the year for the movies Waitress, Once and The Namesake.

Links via Oscars.org, YouTube.com, AwardsDaily.com and TheEnvelope.LATimes.com.

Venice Loves Lee's 'Lust'

Despite harsh reviews from the trades, Ang Lee won his second Venice Film Festival Golden Lion award for Lust, Caution, just two years after his Brokeback Mountain did. Brian De Palm's controversial Redacted took the Silver Lion, while Todd Haynes received a special jury prize for his unconventional Bob Dylan bio, I'm Not There.

Cate Blanchett, one of the many actors who play Dylan in that film, won the fest's Best Actress, and her Babel husband Brad Pitt nabbed Best Actor for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

Ed Radtke's coming-of-age drama The Speed of Life won the festival's first Queer Lion award, created to honor films that include "accurate portrayals of gay characters". Kenneth Branagh's Sleuth came in second with an "honorable mention".

Other movies that have been crossing the award season radar that took home awards include In the Valley of Elah, The Darjeeling Limited, Atonement and Jonathan Demme's documentary on Jimmy Carter, Man from Plains.

What these early awards mean in the long run remains to be seen, although Tom O'Neil over at Gold Derby sure gives it a try.

Links via LaBiennale.org, Imdb.com, HollywoodReporter.com and GoldDerby.LATimes.com.

Best of the Fests: Telluride and Venice Reax

With the Telluride and Venice film festivals both in full swing over the weekend, fest watchers and award pundits the world over have been abuzz about what's good and what's not. It's a veritable information overload out there, so I'll try to sum it up here, separating the hits from the hype.

One film has emerged as a clear victor and early Best Picture contender: Atonement, directed by Pride & Prejudice's Joe Wright and starring his Pride star Keira Knightley (pictured), The Last King of Scotland's James McAvoy and Oscar perennial Vanessa Redgrave. The epic romantic drama has English Patient written all over it, with some critics decreeing it an "instant classic", a term that may come back to haunt the pic if it peaks too early in the game.

I'm Not There, Todd Haynes' unconventional biopic of Bob Dylan, seems to play best to fans of the folkie. Meanwhile, Jason Reitman's follow-up to Thank You for Smoking, the comedic look at teenaged pregnancy Juno, benefited from being one of the few light-hearted flicks amidst all the gloom and doom dramas and Klaus Barbie docs.

More mixed reactions were delivered to such eagerly-awaited entrants as Sean Penn's true-life adventure tale Into the Wild, Noah Baumbach's "put the fun-in-dysfunctional" dramedy Margot at the Wedding, Ocean's buddies George Clooney as Michael Clayton and Brad Pitt as Jesse James, the Salvadorian The Hunting Party (starring Richard Gere and Terrence Howard) and Paul Haggis' In the Valley of Elah (or, as 'Rollerboy' over at AwardsDaily.com calls it, In the Valley of Eh).

The biggest divide in critical opinion comes from an unlikely source: Brian De Palma. Yes, the director of the so-bad-it's-good Dressed to Kill and the just-plain-bad Black Dahlia has delivered the controversial "fictional documentary" Redacted, centering on what seems to be every real documentarian's favorite subject of late, the Iraq war. As could be expected with such a hot-button subject, the film has already stirred-up impassioned reactions from both sides of the political spectrum, yet such controversies rarely lead a film to the Oscar podium (except in the actual documentary category).

Bringing up the rear are a few high-profile projects that apparently will be sitting out this year's trophy races: Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited has more to worry about then a troubled star (with all due respect and best wishes to Owen Wilson); Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream was roasted despite the presence of hunkalicious duo Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell; there was no love lost for Ang Lee's Lust, Caution; and it looks like Kenneth Branagh should have left well-enough alone with his Sleuth remake.

That pretty much wraps things up for these two fests, but there's more to come: the Toronto International Film Festival begins this weekend.

Links via TellurideFilmFestival.com, LaBiennale.org, GoldDerby.LATimes.com, ArtsIndependent.co.uk, Reuters.com, EW.com and TIFF07.ca.

Poster Post: Cowboy Up

Russell Crowe is a notorious outlaw and Christian Bale is the rancher charged with delivering him to the train on time in 3:10 to Yuma, opening this Friday.

James Mangold (Walk the Line) directed this remake of the 1957 western of the same title (starring Glenn Ford and Van Heflin). This new take is already garnering some award buzz, specifically co-star Peter Fonda as a nasty bounty hunter. Ben Foster and Gretchen Mol also star.

The poster art above, reminiscent of a period wanted poster, was one of three designs released by Lions Gate.

Click here to buy 3:10 to Yumaposters from Amazon.com.
Links via Imdb.com, AwardsDaily.com and ObsessedWithFilm.com.

Awards Watch: The Musical!

In its fifth week of release, Hairspray continues to dazzle 'em, passing the $100 million mark this past weekend. It is well on its way to become one of the highest-grossing movie musicals of all-time.

The cast of Hairspray has other reasons to celebrate, as they are the recipients of the film's first award. The Hollywood Film Festival is honoring them with an ensemble prize. This should prove the first of many awards for the movie, especially considering that the film's DVD will be released by the end of the year (otherwise known as the height of the awards season), just in time to remind voters how great it is.

Hairspray should rake in the nominations at the Golden Globes, where there are separate categories for Comedy or Musicals. Expect nods for the film itself and star Nikki Blonsky, as well as possible supporting bids for John Travolta and Michelle Pfeiffer. One or both of the film's new songs ("Ladies' Choice" and "Come So Far (Got So Far to Go)") will certainly be nominated as well. From there the next step will be the Oscars, but we'll cross that bridge once we see how well it does at the Globes.

In related news: more Hairspray merchandise! Per the movie's own blog, there will be two calendars (one for the whole movie, one just for Link Larkin, a.k.a. Zac Efron) and several posters (again, with an emphasis on teen dream Efron) to chose from, on sale now ... and on your walls soon.

In fact, you can purchase the Hairspray calendars and postersright here from Amazon.com!

Links via BroadwayWorld.com, HollywoodAwards.com and HairsprayMovie.com.

Awards Watch: The Toons

Animation fans and Oscar pundits are abuzz following the Comic-Con preview of Beowulf, Robert Zemeckis' latest foray into "mo-cap" (motion capture) animation. The bottom line is whether the "digitally-enhanced live action" of the film will qualify it as an animated feature under the Academy's newest rules that infer that "any film that begins with live action performance and then uses digital animation to enhance or augment that performance is not eligible."

What is interesting about this new rule (which goes into effect with this year's nominations) is that not only would it have deemed last year's nominee Monster House ineligible, but it may have also affected the eligibility of eventual winner Happy Feet (with its mo-capped dance sequences). If these two movies were left off the ballot, then third nominee Cars would have undoubtedly taken home the gold for John Lassiter and Pixar yet again.

Fast forward from Oscar night to the debut this summer of Pixar's Ratatouille, which displayed this statement prominently and proudly in its end credits:

"100 % genuine animation. No motion capture or any other performance shortcuts were used in the production of this film."

Is it a coincidence that the Academy rules were changed around the same time Pixar felt it necessary to permanently clarify the technology used on their entry into this year's awards race? Obviously having a thing against mo-cap (especially after losing to Happy Feet - that had to hurt), could Pixar have had a hand in changing the rules as to what is and is not an animated feature, at least in the eyes of Oscar?

In the meantime, the jury is still out on Beowulf, but Pixar and their top chef may have an even stronger opponent come Oscar time: Homer Simpson.

Of course, in my eyes comparing Ratatouille to The Simpsons Movie is like comparing the Mona Lisa to a Colorforms set.

Links via Variety.com, Imdb.com, Wikipedia.com, Hollywood-Elsewhere.com, LaughingPlace.com and GoldDerby.LATimes.com.

Awards Watch: The Women

2007 is more then half over (can you believe it?), and already there are some front-runners for the big prizes this movie year.

Sure things in their respective categories at this point are Michael Moore's health care doc Sicko, Disney/Pixar's animated hit Ratatouille, and two strong contenders for Best Actor: Don Cheadle in Talk to Me and Christian Bale (finally) in Rescue Dawn.

But the big surprise is in the usually hard-to-fill Best Actress race. There are no less then four women gaining much-needed buzz:

• Marion Cotillard as chanteuse Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose.
• Julie Christie as an Alzheimer's victim in Away from Her.
• Angelina Jolie as Mariane Pearl, wife of slain reporter Danny Pearl, in A Mighty Heart.
• Sigourney Weaver as a mother traumatized by her daughter's disappearance in The Girl in the Park.

Of course, very few people have actually seen most of these movies, but there is no doubt that this year's race is on.

Links via Imdb.com and LaughingPlace.com.