Cinema and Popcorn

- Ben Affleck , Peter Craig and Sheldon Turner for The Town - Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini for Winter's Bone - David Lindsay-Abaire for Rabbit Hole - David Seidler for The King's Speech - Aaron Sorkin for The Social Network in consideration: Ethan Cohen and Joel Cohen ( True Grit ); Dan Fogelman ( Tangled ); Alex Garland ( Never Let Me Go );

- Armando Bo , Nicolás Giocobone and Alejandro González Iñárritu for Biutiful - Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg for The Kids Are All Right - Sofia Coppola for Somewhere - Mike Leigh for Another Year - Christopher Nolan for Inception in consideration : Michael Ardnt ( Toy Story 3 ); Simon Beaufoy and Danny Boyle ( 127 Hours ); Peter Morgan ( Hereafter );

Lisa Cholodenko for The Kids Are All Right - being the director and writer of one of the most acclaimed movies of the year, Lisa Cholodenko may see her work being recognized by the Academy for The Kids Are All Right . In fact, she wrote a very good script, but we're not talking about screenplays yet, and made good actors shine like they never did before. A good director is the one who, besides being able to make a good movie, is able to make his/her movie's cast deliver good performance, which means that a good actor must have a lot of sensibility and Cholodenko proved that directing a sucessful and acclaimed indie movie like The Kids Are All Right . Last year, the Academy awarded a female director, I think they won't be affraid to deserve another one if she deserves... David Fincher for The Social Network - known as a respectful and a Academy Award nominee director, David Fincher has a great body of work with some "almost-legendary-masterpieces" like Se7en ,...

Helena Bonham Carter for The King's Speech - Helena Boham Carter is married with Tim Burton and is oftenly seen in her husband's works and in the Harry Potter franchise's movies, so her role as Elizabeth, the Queen consort of King George VI of UK is something different from what she have been done since some years ago and may give her a second Oscar nod. In fact, playing the English royalty is almost a guaranteed of Oscar or Oscar buzz and her role seems juicy and maybe a scene stealer one, which may put her under the Academy eyes. The King's Speech may not be focused in her character (certainly in Colin Firth's and Geoffrey Rush's ones), but Mrs. Burton is an awesome actress and knows how to call all the attentions to her and an Academy award nomination for Best Supporting Actress is almost sure for her if the movie will get the critical praise it needs to not being snubed by the Academy. Marion Cotillard for Inception - the French Academy's darling m...

Christian Bale for The Fighter - Bale is one of those actors who are very overdue for an Oscar nomination, specially when he has such a great body of work with amazing performances in every movie he does ( Empire of the Sun (1987), Little Women (1994), American Psycho (2000), The Machinist (2004), Batman Begins (2005), The New World (2005), The Prestige (2006), I'm Not There (2007), 3:10 to Yuma (2007) and The Dark Knight (2008)). He has the talent, he has the previous critical acclaim, he's well-known, he's overdue for an Oscar and he plays a boxer in The Fighter : he has everything to get a nod for Best Supporting Actor this year if the movie will received critical praise. I think the Academy should recognize such an amazing actor and don't snub him, again... John Hawkes for Winter's Bone - an worldwide almost unknown face (I'm not including his appearance in LOST TV series), John Hawkes experienced a critical acclaim for his performance ha...

Annette Bening for The Kids Are All Right - The Kids Are All Right became THE indie Summer movie and between the lots of raves that the movie earned, Annette Bening was one of the targets of the critics' praise. Seeing Annette Bening laying a member of a lesbian couple and a mum in a comedy may be something that we aren't used to see and this is the point of a possible Oscar nod and maybe win: she's doing something light, different from, for example, her character in American Beauty . And we can't forgive the Academy for never gave her the golden statue (poor Annette she lost to Hillary Swank twice!), but this year, a nod is sure and a win is possible, definetly! If she won't get a Best Actress nomination for The Kids Are All Right , something's wrong with the Academy: she's overdue for a win, at least! Jennifer Lawrence for Winter's Bone - so young (19), so pretty, so talented! Jennifer Lawrence is the golden girl of the year for her highly praised...

Javier Bardem for Biutiful - after winning the Cannes Film Festival award of best male performance, Bardem seems to be in the lead of the race for the Oscar of Best Leading Actor. He got all the praises in Cannes and his precedents are simply statements about how great his acting skills are and starring a movie directed by a great director as Alejandro González Iñárritu ( 21 Grams and Babel ) is an advantage in this race. Portraying a man involved in illegal activities who's dying is the kind of juicy role that the Academy usually loves. Right now, an Oscar nod is almost sure and it seems " Biutiful " to me! Stephen Dorff for Somewher e - Sofia Coppola's Somewhere is getting critical praise at Venice Film Festival and Stephen Dorff's performance is being acclaimed too. His role seems the Oscar nominee kind of role (a Hollywood superstar who's unhappy in spite of all the luxury that start spending more time with is daughter, starting an emotional journey) a...

Another Year - Mike Leigh brought a highly acclaimed movie to Cannes Film Festival and, in spite of failing any prizes at Cannes, Another Year was considered one of the best in competition and, for some critics, the best one. Another Year it's a story of Tom and Gerri and their friends, a group of unhappy people who try to find some sense to their lives, the kind of emotional and melancholic movie that the Academy oftenly like. Biutiful - Alejandro González Iñárritu, the director of Amores Perros , 21 Grams and Babel , brings a the story of a man involved in illegal activity with a serious health problem who is confronted by an old childhood friend, who is now a police officer. Biutiful premiered receiving a standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival and competed for the Palme D'Or. The movie received raves and received Oscar buzz since when it was annouced that Biutiful will be released this year in USA. One of the strongest contenders for the Best Picture race! The Fighte...

I made my TOP 10 Most Promising Actors under 30 years old, so it would be almost descrimination don't do a TOP 10 to actresses. In this "category" there's a lot of good offers, that it was difficult to make, so I gave a little bit more importance to the actresses' body of work to distinguish them better. Let's start: 1 - Saoirse Ronan She's only 16 and she's already a promise and I consider her as the best young actress of today. There isn't much to say about the young Saoirse. She participated in Joe Wright's adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel named Atonement (starring alongside James McAvoy and Keira Knightley), portraying Briony Tallis at age 13, for which performance she got an Academy Award nomination of Best Supporting Actress. In fact, she was the scene stealer of the movie: she may not be very beautiful, but she was a charisma and such a presence that you can't simply ignore on the silver screen. After her critical sucess for Ato...

Today I discussed about how awful some "teen icons" are and then we talked about some exceptions. So, I decided to make a little list, a TOP 10, with the male actors that I think that will become music in an ocean of noise somewhere in the future (I did one list before, but it was a little bit pathetic and I didn't justify my choices). Let's start... 1 - Ryan Gosling He may not have a huge list of movies in his body of work, but the few times he makes something, all the time he almost carries the movie. In fact, Gosling is a proof that talent does exist and that you don't need excentrical characters to receive raves. He rose to fame after the big screen adaptation of The Notebook (2004) and then received lots of critical praise for his performances in movies like Half Nelson (that gave him an Oscar, a SAG Award and other major awards nominations), Lars and the Real Girl (that gave him a Golden Globe, a SAG Award and other major awards nominations) and Fractur...

Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan is a sensation in Venice Film Festival. Actually, the movie is getting raves and I would say that all of them highly praised Natalie Portman's performance, making her one of the Best Actress Oscar Race best positionated actresses - a serious contender to a nomination and (who knows) to take a golden statue home! Soon we will receive some news about other interesting projects that will be shown in Venice (Sofia Coppola's Somewhere , Julian Schnabel's Miral , Ben Affleck's The Town , between others). " Go, Natalie! Go! I will keep my fingers crossed for you: your talent deserves to be recognize once more!" - just sayin'! There's another Buried (directed by Rodrigo Cortés and starring Ryan Reynolds) movie trailer and the movie seems awesome! Just check out: I think I will pay a ticket to see Buried ! - a movie like this one is something rare nowadays and I really need a good suspense movie. Joseph Gordon-Levitt ( Myst...