News: Detroit Weighs In

     The almost totally inconsequential (in terms of its effect on the Oscars) Detroit Film Critics Society came out with the year-end nominations today. While they won't have any significant effect on any other awards, I do have to say they had some interesting nominations. In particular, I really liked the two nominations for "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" (Best Director for Edgar Wright and a Best Ensemble nomination), which I consider to be one of the most underrated films of the year, and a Best Supporting Actor nomination for John Hawkes in "Winter's Bone", who did a spectacular job as Jennifer Lawrence's gruff uncle in the drama about life in the Missouri Ozarks. If you want to see the full list of their nominees, click here.

Top 100: 70-61

      Amazingly, this is already the fourth week of my "Top 100 Movies" countdown. It's been going by fast, as we are now approaching the half-way point (if you missed the previous three weeks, catch up by clicking the following links: 100-91, 90-81, 80-71). Much like last week's ten, this week's list does not have any strong theme to it, other than there being a lot of Oscar contending films. Eight out of the ten films this week were nominees for Best Picture, including four movies that won Oscar's most prestigious prize, so this week will showcase some films where I am in total agreement with the Academy. In terms of genres, there isn't one that sticks out, although most of the films I guess would fall under the very generic "drama" category (which explains the correlation between the Oscar nominations and this week's list). There is no real dominant decade either, with the 1980's and 1960's tied for the most this week with 3 apiece. On the director front, there is no director that appears more than once, but there are some great auteurs on the list, including the first appearances of two of my all-time favorites. Well, I think that's enough for the tease, so now on to the countdown!

News: Academy Countdown to Oscars

     I thought I would pass along the news that the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences (the official name of for the organization that runs the Oscars), is starting a countdown to the Oscars tomorrow. This year will be the 83rd edition of the annual awards show, and tomorrow will mark 83 days until the show's premiers, so in honor of this year's show, the Academy is going to post some photos and interesting trivia about each year, from the beginning in 1927 until last year's 2009 show. If you don't know much about Oscar history, it sounds like a fun way to learn. I will definitely be checking it out myself, so maybe I will post an update giving you my opinion on it sometime. In the meantime, here is the official press release from the Academy.

    On December 7 (tomorrow!), we will be 83 days away from the 83rd Academy Awards. Beginning tomorrow, we will be counting down to the February 27 ceremony by revisiting all of the Academy Awards ceremonies that have come before. You’re invited to visit Oscars.org on December 7 – and every day thereafter – to experience highlights from throughout the history of one of the world’s most anticipated annual events. We’ll be showcasing photos, audio clips, video segments and interesting facts (from the year’s awards winners and ceremony, as well as around the world in general) and all of the content featured will be shareable.

    We hope you’ll spend a few minutes each day venturing back in time as we continue on our journey forward to the 83rd Oscars. You can sign up for our RSS feed of the Countdown, follow us on Facebook (Facebook.com/The Academy) or Twitter (twitter.com/TheAcademy), or just check oscars.org each day.

News: Washington D.C Critics Announce Their Favorites of 2010

     As part of the oncoming onslaught of awards announcements, the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association announced there yearly nominations and winners. Like the NBR Awards, the big winner was "The Social Network", winning Best Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay. Another successful film in the D.C. Critics awards was "The Fighter", which won both Best Supporting Actor (Christian Bale) and Best Supporting Actress (Melissa Leo). The other two big acting awards went to Colin Firth for "The King's Speech" and Jennifer Lawrence for "Winter's Bone". Like the NBR, "The Town" also won a Best Acting Ensemble award from the D.C. Critics, which is just another data point in the upward-swinging momentum of the Ben Affleck film. To check out a full list of the nominees and winners, click here.