2015 Awards -- Annie Award Nominations

The Annie Awards are one I particularly enjoy, as I have a strong fondness for animation in all it's forms. This year, we have a mixed bag of techniques represented. Stop-motion and CGI taking the forefront. The nominees from the International Animated Film Society are...

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

• Anomalisa -- Paramount Picture
• The Good Dinosaur -- Pixar Animation Studios
• Inside Out -- Pixar Animation Studios
• The Peanuts Movie -- Blue Sky Studios & Twentieth Century Fox Animation
• Shaun the Sheep The Movie -- Aardman Animations

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE - INDEPENDENT

• The Boy and the Beast -- Studio Chizu
• Boy and the World -- Filme de Papel
• Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet -- Ventanarosa
• When Marnie Was There -- Studio Ghibli

ANIMATED EFFECTS IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

• The Good Dinosaur
• Home
• Hotel Transylvania 2
• Inside Out
• Minions
• The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water

ANIMATED EFFECTS IN A LIVE-ACTION PRODUCTION

• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
• Jurassic World
• Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron
• Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

CHARACTER ANIMATION IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

• The Good Dinosaur - Mark C. Harris
• The Good Dinosaur - K.C. Roeyer
• Home - Mark Donald
• Inside Out - Travis Hathaway
• Inside Out - Allison Rutland
• Minions - Hichem Arfaoui
• The Peanuts Movie - B.J. Crawford

CHARACTER ANIMATION IN A LIVE-ACTION PRODUCTION

• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - Azog
• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - Smaug
• Jurassic World - Indominus Rex
• Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron - The Hulk
• Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron - Ultron
• The Revenant - The Bear

CHARACTER DESIGN IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

• The Good Dinosaur
• Hotel Transylvania 2
• Inside Out
• Minions

DIRECTING OF AN ANIMATED FEATURE

• Anomalisa - Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson
• Extraordinary Tales - Raul Garcia
• Inside Out - Pete Docter
• Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet - Roger Allers
• The Peanuts Movie - Steve Martino
• Shaun the Sheep The Movie - Mark Burton & Richard Starzak
• When Marnie Was There - Hiromasa Yonebayashi

EDITORIAL OF AN ANIMATED FEATURE

• Anomalisa - Garret Elkins
• Inside Out - Kevin Nolting
• Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet - Jennifer Dolce & Ernesto Matamoros
• Shaun the Sheep The Movie - Sim Evan-Jones

MUSIC IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

• Anomalisa
• Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem
• Boy and the World
• The Good Dinosaur
• Inside Out

PRODUCTION DESIGN IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

• Boy and the World
• The Good Dinosaur
• He Named Me Malala
• Home
• Inside Out
• Minions
• Shaun the Sheep The Movie

STORYBOARDING OF AN ANIMATED FEATURE

• Extraordinary Tales - Antonio Santamaria
• The Good Dinosaur - Bill Presing
• The Good Dinosaur - Rosana Sullivan
• The Good Dinosaur - J.P. Vine, Tony Rosenast & Enrico Casarosa
• Hotel Transylvania 2 - Mike Smukavic
• Inside Out - Tony Rosenast
• Inside Out - Domee Shi
• Minions - Habib Louati

VOICE ACTING IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

• Anomalisa - Jennifer Jason Leigh - Lisa Hesselman
• Inside Out - Amy Poehler - Joy
• Inside Out - Phyllis Smith - Sadness
• Minions - Pierre Coffin - The Minions
• Minions - Jon Hamm - Herb Overkill
• The Peanuts Movie - Alex Garfin - Linus
• The Peanuts Movie - Hadley Belle Miller - Lucy
• The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water - Tom Kenny - Spongebob

WRITING OF AN ANIMATED FEATURE

• Inside Out - Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve & Josh Cooley
• Shaun the Sheep The Movie - Mark Burton & Richard Starzak
• When Marnie Was There - Keiko Niwa, Masashi Ando & Hiromasa Yonebayashi

2015 Awards -- Independent Spirit Award Nominees

The biggest Indy awards of the year have announced their nominees, and many films that are burning into the Oscar race have found a home year. Particularly the critics darlings Spotlight, Carol, and Anomalisa. Also a strong showing for Netflix's Beasts of No Nation.

BEST FEATURE
Anomalisa
Beasts of No Nation
Carol
Spotlight
Tangerine

BEST DIRECTOR
Sean Baker - "Tangerine"
Cary Joji Fukunaga - "Beasts of No Nation"
Todd Haynes - "Carol"
Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson - "Anomalisa"
Tom McCarthy - "Spotlight"
David Robert Mitchell - "It Follows"

BEST MALE LEAD
Christopher Abbott - "James White"
Abraham Attah - "Beasts of No Nation"
Ben Mendelsohn - "Mississippi Grind"
Jason Segel - "The End of the Tour"
Koudous Seihon - "Mediterranea"

BEST FEMALE LEAD
Cate Blanchett - "Carol"
Brie Larson - "Room"
Rooney Mara - "Carol"
Bel Powley - "The Diary of a Teenage Girl"
Kitana Kiki Rodriguez - "Tangerine"

BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Kevin Corrigan - "Results"
Paul Dano - "Love & Mercy"
Idris Elba - "Beasts of No Nation"
Richard Jenkins - "Bone Tamahawk"
Michael Shannon - "99 Homes"

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Robin Bartlett - "H."
Marin Ireland - "Glass Chin"
Jennifer Jason Leigh - "Anomalisa"
Cynthia Nixon - "James White"
Mya Taylor - "Tangerine"

BEST SCREENPLAY
Anomalisa
Bone Tamahawk
Carol
The End of the Tour
Spotlight

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Beasts of No Nation
Carol
It Follows
Meadowland
Songs My Brothers Taught Me

BEST EDITING
Heaven Knows What
It Follows
Manos Sucias
Room
Spotlight

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
Embrace of the Serpent (Colombia)
Girlhood (France)
Mustang (France, Turkey)
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (Sweden)
Son of Saul (Hungary)

BEST DOCUMENTARY
(T)error
Best of Enemies
Heart of a Dog
The Look of Silence
Meru
The Russian Woodpecker

BEST FIRST FEATURE
The Diary of a Teenage Girl
James White
Manos Sucias
Mediterranea
Songs My Brothers Taught Me

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Mediterranea
The Mend
Room

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD (feature under $500K)
Advantageous
Christmas, Again
Heaven Knows What
Krisha
Out Of My Hand

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD (given to 1 film's director, casting director & ensemble)
SPOTLIGHT

KIEHL'S SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
Robert Machoian & Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck - "God Bless the Child"
Felix Thompson - "King Jack"
Chloe Zhao - "Songs My Brothers Taught Me"

PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD
Darren Dean
Mel Eslyn
Rebecca Green & Laura D. Smith

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
Alex Sichel & Elizabeth Giamatti - "A Woman Like Me"
Hemal Trivedi & Mohammed Ali Naqvi - "Among the Believers"
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi - "Incorruptible"

2015 Awards -- PGA Documentary Nominees

The Producers Guild have announced their nominees in the Documentary Feature category for the year. Some very strong players in this year's crop. We'll have to wait to see how they compare to the Academy's choices. The nominees for the PGA are...

AMY

THE HUNTING GROUND

THE LOOK OF SILENCE

MERU

SOMETHING BETTER TO COME

10 Animated Shorts left in the Oscar Race

And following suit with the live-action shorts, we have the finalist list for the ten Animated Shorts as well. They are..

• Bear Story (Historia De Un Oso)
• Carface (Autos Portraits)
• If I Was God
• Love in the Time of March Madness
• My Home
• An Object at Rest
• Prologue
• Sanjay's Super Team
• We Can't Live without Cosmos
• World of Tomorrow

10 Live-Action Shorts Have Advanced As Finalists

The 10 live action short films that have advanced into the final list for a nomination are...

• Ave Maria
• Bad Hunter
• Big Gleich (Till Then)
• Contrapelo (Against the Grain)
• Day One
• Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)
• The Free Man (Zi You Ren)
• Shok
• Stutterer
• Winter Light

16 Animated Features Submitted for Oscar Consideration

In any year where the total submitted is more than 15, there will be 5 nominees, as per the category rules. This year, as usual, there is a healthy mix of several different types of animation procedures. From Pixar CGI magic to stop-motion, hand-drawn to anime, it should be a good category this year. Submissions hail from big U.S. studios and all over the world. Hard to see anything beating Inside Out, but if it's gonna happen, it'll most likely come from Anomalisa, which is garnering rave after rave for Charlie Kaufman's latest. Also looking like a year where "popular" but criticaly mixed fair, such as Home and Minions, will likely be left out, even with good box office. Here's the full list of 16...

• Anomalisa
• The Boy and the Beast
• Boy and the World
• The Good Dinosaur
• Home
• Hotel Transylvania 2
• Inside Out
• Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet
• The Laws of the Universe - Part 0
• Minions
• Moomins on the Riviera
• The Peanuts Movie
• Regular Show: The Movie
• Shaun the Sheep Movie
• The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water
• When Marnie Was There

2015 Awards -- British Independent Film Award Nominations

Strong showings for several films for the British Film Award, especially from the films up for Best Film, which also feature into the director, acting and screenplay categories. Once the winners were announced, the big winner was Ex Machina, taking 4 awards total including 3 of the biggies.

BEST BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM
45 Years
Amy
Ex Machina
The Lobster
Macbeth

BEST DIRECTOR
Alex Garland - "Ex Machina"
Andrew Haigh - "45 Years"
Asif Kapadia - "Amy"
Justin Kurzel - "Macbeth"
Yorgos Lanthimos - "The Lobster"

BEST ACTOR
Tom Courtenay - "45 Years"
Colin Farrell - "The Lobster"
Michael Fassbender - "Macbeth"
Tom Hardy - "Legend"
Tom Hiddleston - "High-Rise"

BEST ACTRESS
Marion Cotillard - "Macbeth"
Carey Mulligan - "Suffragette"
Charlotte Rampling - "45 Years"
Saoirse Ronan - "Brooklyn"
Alicia Vikander - "The Danish Girl"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Luke Evans - "High-Rise"
Brendan Gleeson - "Suffragette"
Domnhall Gleeson - "Brooklyn"
Sean Harris - "Macbeth"
Ben Whishaw - "The Lobster"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Helena Bonham Carter - "Suffragette"
Olivia Colman - "The Lobster"
Anne-Marie Duff - "Suffragette"
Sienna Miller - "High-Rise"
Julie Walters - "Brooklyn"

BEST SCREENPLAY
45 Years
Brooklyn
Ex Machina
High-Rise
The Lobster

BEST INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT FILM
Carol
Force Majeure
Girlhood
Room
Son of Saul

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Amy
Dark Horse: The Incredible True Story of Dream Alliance
How to Change the World
Palio
A Syrian Love Story

BEST DEBUT DIRECTOR (DOUGLAS HICKOX AWARD)
Chris & Ben Blaine - "Nina Forever"
Stephen Fingleton - "The Survivalist"
Corin Hardy - "The Hallow"
Paul Katis - "Kajaki: The True Story"
John Maclean - "Slow West"

MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER
Agyness Dean - "Sunset Song"
Mia Goth - "The Survivalist"
Abigail Hardingham - "Nina Forever"
Milo Parker - "Mr. Holmes"
Bel Powley - "A Royal Night Out"

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN CRAFT
Adam Arkapaw - "Macbeth" - Cinematography
Mark Digby - "Ex Machina" - Production Design
Chris King - "Amy" - Editing
Fiona Weir - "Brooklyn" - Casting
Andrew Whitehurst - "Ex Machina" - Production Design

PRODUCER OF THE YEAR
Ceci Dempsey, Ed Guiney, Yorgos Lanthimos & Lee Magiday - "The Lobster"
James Gay-Rees - "Amy"
Tristan Goligher - "45 Years"
David A. Hughes & David Moores - "The Violators"
Paul Katis & Andrew De Lotbiniere - "Kajaki: The True Story"

RAINDANCE DISCOVERY AWARD
Aaaaaaaah!
Burn Burn Burn
Orion: The Man Who Would Be King
The Return
Winter

BEST SHORT FILM
Balcony
Crack
Edmond
Love is Blind
Manoman

10 Documentary Shorts on the Oscar Eligible List

In the race for Best Documentary Short Subject, the Academy has released a shortlist of the 10 finalists. They are...

• Body Team 12
• Chau
• Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah
• 50 Feet from Syria
• A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
• Last Day of Freedom
• Menerita
• My Enemy, My Brother
• Starting Point
• The Testimony

2015 Awards -- IFP Gotham Independent Film Nominees & Winners

The 25th Gotham Independent Film Awards have arrived, announcing the official start of the awards season. These are chosen by a nomination committee of distinguished writers and critics. CAROL led the field with 4 nominations, but the big winner was SPOTLIGHT, taking the awards for Best Feature, Screenplay, and a special award for the ensemble cast.

BEST FEATURE
Carol
The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Heaven Knows What
Spotlight
Tangerine

BEST ACTOR
Christopher Abbott - "James White"
Kevin Corrigan - "Results"
Paul Dano - "Love & Mercy"
Peter Sarsgaard - "Experimenter"
Michael Shannon - "99 Homes"

BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett - "Carol"
Blythe Danner - "I'll See You in My Dreams"
Brie Larson - "Room"
Bel Powley - "The Diary of a Teenage Girl"
Lily Tomlin - "Grandma"
Kristen Wiig - "Welcome to Me"

BEST SCREENPLAY
Carol
The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Love & Mercy
Spotlight
While We're Young

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Approaching the Elephant
Cartel Land
Heart of a Dog
Listen to Me Marlon
The Look of Silence

BINGHAM RAY BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR AWARD
Desiree Akhaven - "Appropriate Behavior"
Jonas Carpigano - "Mediterranea"
Marielle Heller - "The Diary of a Teenage Girl"
John Magary - "The Mend"
Josh Mound - "James White"

BEST BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR
Rory Culkin - "Gabriel"
Arielle Holmes - "Heaven Knows What"
Lola Kirke - "Mistress America"
Kitana Kiki Rodriguez - "Tangerine"
Mya Taylor - "Tangerine"

SPOTLIGHT ON WOMEN DIRECTORS 'LIVE THE DREAM' GRANT
Claire Carre - "Embers"
Chanelle Aponte Pearson - "195 Lewis"
Deb Shoval - "AWOL"

SPECIAL JURY AWARD: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci & Brian D'Arcy James (Spotlight)

2014 OSCAR BEACHHOUSE AWARD WINNERS

And the winners of the 2014 Oscar Beachhouse Awards were...

BEST OVERLOOKED FILM

CHEF

BEST SHOT

BIRDMAN -- Trapped outside the theater

BEST SCENE/SEQUENCE

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST -- Quicksilver Pentagon Rescue

BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE

JACK O'CONNELL -- "Unbroken"

BEST BREAKTHROUGH FILMMAKER

DAMIAN CHAZELLE -- "Whiplash"

BEST ACTION FILM

JOHN WICK

BEST COMEDY FILM

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

WILD TALES

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

"LOST STARS" -- Begin Again

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

INTERSTELLAR

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

INTERSTELLAR

BEST SOUND EDITING

INTERSTELLAR

BEST SOUND MIXING

WHIPLASH

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

BEST FILM EDITING

BOYHOOD

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

BIRDMAN

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

THE LEGO MOVIE

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

THE IMITATION GAME

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

PATRICIA ARQUETTE -- "Boyhood"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

EDWARD NORTON -- "Birdman"

BEST ACTRESS

ROSAMUND PIKE -- "Gone Girl"

BEST ACTOR

MICHAEL KEATON -- "Birdman"

BEST DIRECTOR

RICHARD LINKLATER -- "Boyhood"

BEST PICTURE

BOYHOOD

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL - 5 awards

       Best Ensemble Cast

       Best Original Screenplay

       Best Production Design

       Best Costume Design

       Best Comedy Film

BOYHOOD - 4 awards

       Best Picture

       Best Director (Richard Linklater)

       Best Supporting Actress (Patricia Arquette)

       Best Film Editing

BIRDMAN - 4 awards

       Best Actor (Michael Keaton)

       Best Supporting Actor (Edward Norton)

       Best Cinematography

       Best Shot (Trapped outside the theater)

INTERSTELLAR - 3 awards

       Best Sound Editing

       Best Visual Effects

       Best Original Score

WHIPLASH - 2 awards

       Best Sound Mixing

       Best Breakthrough Filmmaker (Damian Chazelle)

GONE GIRL - 1 award

       Best Actress (Rosamund Pike)

THE IMITATION GAME - 1 award

       Best Adapted Screenplay

THE LEGO MOVIE - 1 award

       Best Animated Feature

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY - 1 award

       Best Makeup & Hairstyling

BEGIN AGAIN - 1 award

       Best Original Song "Lost Stars"

WILD TALES - 1 award

       Best Foreign Language Film

JOHN WICK - 1 award

       Best Action Film

UNBROKEN - 1 award

       Best Breakthrough Performance (Jack O'Connell)

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST - 1 award

       Best Scene/Sequence (Quicksilver Pentagon Rescue)

CHEF - 1 award

       Best Overlooked Film

2014 Beachhouse Awards by the numbers

A total of 66 films received at least 1 nomination this year, the largest total to date if memory serves me right. No new categories, and kept all at 5 nominees, except for Overlooked Film which I've varied between 7 and 10 depending on the year, with 10 mentions this year. As always, I tried to vary up the nominees, including many choices that were left out all year long by other awards, or films that made a good precursor showing and then ended up snubbed by the Academy. In fact, even without the Overlooked category (in which I choose films that I think are definitely worthy of mention but didn't place in any other particular category)...there were still 23 films that received a nomination somewhere that were otherwise completely blanked by the Academy for the 2014 Oscars.

Films nominated by total of nods
12 - The Grand Budapest Hotel

8 - Birdman: or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
8 - Whiplash

7 - Boyhood

6 - Gone Girl
6 - Interstellar

5 - Guardians of the Galaxy

4 - American Sniper
4 - The Imitation Game
4 - Nightcrawler

3 - Edge of Tomorrow
3 - Inherent Vice
3 - Into the Woods
3 - John Wick
3 - Snowpiercer

2 - 22 Jump Street
2 - Begin Again
2 - Belle
2 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier
2 - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
2 - Force Majeure
2 - Fury
2 - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
2 - Mr. Turner
2 - Selma
2 - St. Vincent
2 - The Theory of Everything
2 - Unbroken
2 - Wild
2 - X-Men: Days of Future Past

1 - The Babadook
1 - Big Hero 6
1 - Cake
1 - Calvary
1 - Chef
1 - The Drop
1 - Foxcatcher
1 - Get on Up
1 - Godzilla
1 - The Good Lie
1 - The Guest
1 - The Homesman
1 - How to Train Your Dragon 2
1 - Ida
1 - If I Stay
1 - Kill the Messenger
1 - Land Ho!
1 - The Lego Movie
1 - Leviathan
1 - Locke
1 - Mommy
1 - A Most Violent Year
1 - Muppets Most Wanted
1 - Neighbors
1 - Noah
1 - Only Lovers Left Alive
1 - Paddington
1 - Pride
1 - The Raid 2
1 - Rudderless
1 - Song of the Sea
1 - Still Alice
1 - The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
1 - Two Days, One Night
1 - Under the Skin
1 - Wild Tales