And the winner is...

Or at least who I think the winners will be! Here are my picks for this years Academy Awards:
Best Film: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Actor: Sean Penn (You KNOW I would really like to be able to say that Richard Jenkins will win but alas….)
Best Actress: Kate Winslet
Best Director: Danny Boyle
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (duh!)
Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis
Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy - Slumdog Millionaire
Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black - Milk
Animated Feature: Wall-E
Art Direction: Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire
Costume Design: The Duchess
Documentary: Man on Wire
Editing: Slumdog Millionaire
Foreign Language: Waltz with Bashir
Make-up: Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Original Score: Slumdog Millionaire
Original Song: Slumdog Millionaire - "Jai Ho"
Sound Editing: The Dark Knight
Sound Mixing: The Dark Knight
Visual Effects: Curious Case of Benjamin Button


The Oscars are on this Sunday night. But for those indie minded folk out there, the Independent Spirit Awards are on Saturday night at 10pm on AMC (or live at 5pm if you have IFC channel). Here is a link to this year’s Independent Spirit nominees (http://spiritawards.com/nominees).
Let the games begin!

Film Forum Cancelled

Unfortunately, we have to cancel the Watching the Detectives Saturday Film Forum. Major issues came up with the schedule and the library theater and as no satisfactory solution reared its head, we will have to cancel the entire program. Sorry to my loyal Film Forum followers!!

The Guilds have Spoken!

Recently many of the entertainment guilds have announced their awards for the 2008 film season.
The Producer’s Guild award went to Slumdog Millionaire.
The Writers Guild went to Milk for Original Screenplay and Slumdog Millionaire for Adapted Screenplay.
The Director’s Guild went to Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire.
Hmmmm…could this possible be a trend?
The BAFTA’s (British Film Awards) were announced this weekend and it seems that Slumdog Millionaire is the darling of the BAFTA’s as well! It walked away with Best Film, Best Director (Danny Boyle), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Score, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Sound. Oddly enough, it didn’t get any BAFTA acting awards. Those went to: Best Actress Kate Winslet for The Reader, Best Actor Mickey Rourke for the Wrestler, Best Supporting Actor Heath Ledger for Dark Knight and Best Supporting Actress Penelope Cruz for Vicky, Cristina Barcelona.

The American Cinematographers will announce their awards on Sunday, February 15th and the Costume Designers Guild announces on Tuesday, February 17th.
The guild awards are always a good indication of who might walk away with an Oscar on February 22nd.

I haven’t seen a release date for Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon, The Wrestler, Revolutionary Road or Curious Case of Benjamin button on DVD but Frozen River should be in this week, Changeling will be out February 17th, Milk and Rachel Getting Married are coming on March 10th, Doubt on April 7th, The Reader is scheduled for April 14th. Of course, all are on order for the HBPL Media Department!