Cinema and Popcorn

Some people might say the guild awards don't always translate to excelence and that they are an awards vehicle for Americanized productions...! Well, that's kinda true, but they are useful precursor in what comes to Oscar predictions, specially Best Picture (and each's guild respective categories). The AMPAS is divided in multiple branches - each branch votes a certain (or more than one) specific category, but all branches' members vote for Best Picture! This means, overall guild awards support often translates to Best Picture love! Of course there are always a couple of critics' pushes that pops-up in the Oscars shortlist, but most spots in each category were previously "predicted" by the guilds. So, let's have a look at all the guilds nominations (I am not going to include SAG Awards here, since SAG was "explored" in the previous post): PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA (PGA) AWARDS Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Mot...

Boston Society of Film Critics kicks off the critics awards season. It's one of the major critics associations in USA and they often pick very interesting winners. And the big winners are: Nomadland and The Father , with Minari as a solid #3 favorite! Have a look: BEST PICTURE: Nomadland Runner up : First Cow BEST DIRECTOR: Chloé Zhao ( Nomadland ) Runner-up : Kelly Reichardt ( First Cow ) BEST NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILM: La Llorona BEST ENSEMBLE CAST: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Runner-up : Minari BEST ACTOR:  Anthony Hopkins ( The Father ) Runner-up : Riz Amed ( Sound of Metal ) BEST ACTRESS: Sidney Flanigan  ( Never Rarely Sometimes Always ) Runner-up : Julia Garner ( The Assistant ) BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Paul Raci ( Sound of Metal ) Runner-up : Brian Dennehy ( Driveways ) BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Youn Yuh-jung ( Minari ) Runner-up : Amanda Seyfried ( Mank ) BEST SCREENPLAY: I’m Thinking of Ending Things , Charlie Kaufman Runner-up : First Cow , Kelly Reichardt and ...

A new rubric here at Cinema and Popcorn: "The Underrated" aims to analyse a movie, a performance or a directing/screenplay work that didn't get the award recognition it deserved by the time it was released. It will be composed by a small review and then an award analysis. The first object of analysis of this rubric: Vicky Cristina Barcelona , an ideal movie for sunny (almost Summer) days, I watched yesterday. Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) Directed by Woody Allen The curious case of Vicky Cristina Barcelona ... When Woody Allen presented us the love triangle(s) of Vicky Cristina Barcelona , I must confess I thought it was one of the sexiest movies in year, but also one of the most Woody Allen-esque movies of his filmography in years! And yet, the movie failed to get the recognition I think it deserved by the time...   The idea of ensembling Javier Bardem, Scarlett Johansson, Penélope Cruz and then fresh Rebecca Hall for a sunny Summer in the beautiful city o...

BEST PICTURE: Parasite ; Runner-up : The Irishman BEST DIRECTOR: Bong Joon-ho , Parasite ; Runner-up : Martin Scorsese , The Irishman BEST SCREENPLAY: Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story ; Runner-up: Bong Joon-ho & Han Jun-won, Parasite BEST ACTRESS: Mary Kay Place , Diane ; Runner-up : Lupita Nyong'o , Us BEST ACTOR: Antonio Banderas , Pain and Glory ; Runner-up : Adam Driver , Marriage Story BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jennifer Lopez , Hustlers ; Runner-up : Zhao Shuzhen , The Farewell BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Song Kang-ho , Parasite ; Runner-up : Joe Pesci , The Irishman BEST EDITING: Todd Douglas Miller,  Apollo 11 ; Runner-up : Ronald Bronstein & Bennie Safdie, Uncut Gems BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN:  Barbara Ling,  Once Upon a Time in Hollywood ; Runner-up : Ha Jun Lee,  Parasite BEST DOCUMENTARY/NON-FICTION FILM: American Factory ; Runner-up : Apollo 11 BEST ANIMATION: I Lost My Body ; Runner-up : Toy Story 4 BEST SCORE: I Lost My Body , Dan Levy; R...

The New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC)  was announcing its winners of 2019 and I was posting the winners just as they announce them. And... The Irishman takes the top prize home, plus a win for Joe Pesci 's supporting turn. It's also good news for Lupita Nyong'o ( Us ) and Antonio Banderas ( Pain and Glory ) who needed some visibility at this point of the race due to their respective films being early releases. The bias around award the horror genre might hurt Lupita's chances, while a foreign language performance doesn't do well in Best Actor usually - the NYFCC wins will give them an Oscar boost! Also, I'm happy for having Portrait of a Lady on Fire being recognized for its cinematography - since 2006, only 2 NYFCC Best Cinematography winners missed an Academy Award for Best Cinematography nomination! Have a look: BEST FILM:   The Irishman BEST DIRECTOR:  Benny and Josh Safdie,  Uncut Gems BEST SCREENPLAY:  Quentin Tarantino,  Once Upon a ...

The National Board of Review has just announced their picks for 2019... and Martin Scorsese's The Irishman was named the Best Film of 2019! It's a major win for the mob epic, a movie that was absent from the early awards list since it doesn't qualify as an independent production (Gotham Awards and Independent Spirit Awards are just for indies) - but it has just started the awards season with a big stan!  Are Renee Zellweger ( Judy ) and Brad Pitt ( Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood ) going to sweep all the awards? Both are considered to be the clear frontrunners in their respective categories, but NBR Awards aren't a trustful predictor of the Oscar wins (or even the nods in some years). Let's have a look at the Best Actress category: from the 9 NBR winners since 2010 (Zelweger is excluded of course), 4 missed a Best Actress nom, 3 got nominations and 2 won the Oscar. If go back to the 2000's, every NBR Best Actress winner landed an Oscar nomination, with...

The Satellite Awards are a kind of early Oscars, since they often recognize the early frontrunners with a big couple of uninspired and expected choices, but this year they surprised... with their snubs! Little Women , A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood or The Irishman missing Best Motion Picture, Drama, Best Director ( Martin Scorsese ), Best Actor, Drama ( Robert DeNiro ) or Best Supporting Actor ( Al Pacino ) - these are the snubs that shocked me the most coming from an awards organization that usually doesn't surprise me this much. No matter what, with 10 nominations, Ford v. Ferrari leads the Satellite Awards nominations, with 1917 , Marriage Story and Joker also making strong shows in key categories. I know Satellite Awards doesn't translate that well to Oscars, but it's really helpful in the technical categories and the snubs do have some meaning... Not the complete snubs (I wonder if Little Women or A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood were seen so they co...