MTV Movie Awards Nominations

MOVIE OF THE YEAR

• 12 Years a Slave
• American Hustle
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
• The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
• The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST MALE PERFORMANCE

• Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
• Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
• Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
• Josh Hutcherson, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
• Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club 

BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE

• Amy Adams, American Hustle
• Jennifer Aniston, We're the Miller
• Sandra Bullock, Gravity
• Jennifer Lawrence, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
• Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave

Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylist Guild

CONTEMPORARY HAIRSTYLING: Lee Daniels' The Butler
PERIOD/CHARACTER HAIRSTYLING: American Hustle
CONTEMPORARY MAKE-UP: Prisoners
PERIOD/CHARACTER MAKE-UP: Dallas Buyers Club
SPECIAL MAKE-UP EFFECTS: Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa

ACE Eddie Award Winners

The American Cinema Editors announced their choices for the best in film editing for the 2013 movie year.  The tricky splicing of a feature film, the what that separates the movies from real life, the sometimes (but certainly not always) invisible art form that sculpts a movie.  The Best Film Editing Oscar is usually synonymous with Best Picture and the ACE Eddies can be accurate gauges of how the race may eventually turn out.  And other times, they're not; that's the way it goes.

BEST FILM EDITING (Drama)
Captain Phillips- Christopher Rouse

"I am the captain now."

Rouse previously earned the ACE Eddie Award and the Academy Award for Paul Greengrass' The Bourne Ultimatum, one of a handful of cases where the Editors went their own way rather than placing a bet on a probable Best Picture winner.  Can it happen again?  It appears to be a fierce race for the Best Picture Oscar for Gravity, 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle, but is Captain Phillips (which has no shot at the big prize) rallying to spoil in a few areas-- it's surprise WGA win and ACE Eddie prize point to plausible surprises on Oscar night.

BEST FILM EDITING (Musical or Comedy)
American Hustle- Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers & Alan Baumgarten

"You're nothing to me until you're everything."

Cassidy and Struthers won the same award last year and were up for the Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook (they lost to Argo, which won the ACE Eddie for Drama.)  All three are up for the Oscar again for American Hustle.

BEST FILM EDITING (Documentary)
20 Feet From Stardom- Douglas Blush, Kevin Klauber & Jason Zeldes

Searching For Sugar Man won the ACE Eddie last year for Documentary Feature before winning the Documentary Oscar prize-- could this back-up singer story have the same fate?

BEST FILM EDITING (Animated Feature)
Frozen- Jeff Draheim

TELEVISION
MINI-SERIES OR MOVIE: Behind the Candelabra- Mary Ann Bernard (Steven Soderbergh)
ONE HOUR SERIES (Commercial TV): Breaking Bad- "Felina"- Skip MacDonald
ONE HOUR SERIES (Non-Commercial TV): Homeland- "Big Man in Tehran"- Terry Kelley
HALF-HOUR SERIES: The Office- "Finale"- David Rogers & Claire Scanlan
TV DOCUMENTARY: The Assassination of President Kennedy- Chris A. Peterson

GOLDEN EDDIE AWARD: Paul Greengrass
CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Richard Halsey

"American Hustle" and Oscar History

David O. Russell's American Hustle earned an extremely rare feat: four acting Oscar nominations, one for each acting category.  Russell accomplished the same thing last year for Silver Linings Playbook, which collected a win for Jennifer Lawrence in the Best Actress category.  In doing some research, this marked the first time in history that a filmmaker had successfully gotten a nomination in each of the four acting categories twice, in two consecutive years no less.  At this point, surely every agent and actor in the industry will be clamoring to work on Russell's follow-up films.  To date, only fifteen films in the history of the Academy Awards have earned acting nominations in all four categories.  Interestingly, none of the films to have accomplished this have ended up winning Best Picture.  American Hustle detractors can take note of that I suppose.  And they are:

Lombard and Powell in My Man Godfrey

MY MAN GODFREY (1936)- directed by Gregory La Cava
Actor: William Powell
Actress: Carole Lombard
Supporting Actor: Mischa Auer
Supporting Actress: Alice Brady

No winners in the group, and it's the only case in Academy history when a film earned the magic four acting nods without a coinciding Best Picture nomination.

MRS. MINIVER (1942)- directed by William Wyler
Actor: Walter Pidgeon
Actress: Greer Garson
Supporting Actor: Henry Travers
Supporting Actress: Teresa Wright; Dame May Whitty

Garson and Wright won Oscars in Wyler's WWII drama which also won the Best Picture prize.  Mrs. Miniver went a step even further, get a mention in not only all four acting categories, but two in  Supporting Actress  William Wyler has directed more Oscar-nominated performances than any other filmmaker.  He directed 36 performances to a nomination and 14 to a win; Elia Kazan (also a director with a credit on this list) is his closet competitor with 24 nominated performances and Martin Scorsese (not listed) is the closet living director with a chance of defeating said record with 22 nominated performances.

SAG Awards

MOTION PICTURE
BEST ENSEMBLE: American Hustle
BEST ACTOR: Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
BEST ACTRESS: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave
BEST STUNTS: Lone Survivor

I neglected to do predictions because it seems the SAG Awards just came out of nowhere in this accelerated awards season.  Geez the PGA Awards are tomorrow!  Yet after this late January madness, there will be an entire month of mudslinging en route the Oscars.  That being said, the SAG choices seems reflective of the way the big show may go around and all four acting winners reaped Critics Choice prizes and three out of four won Globes last weekend.

71st Golden Globe Awards

PICTURE (Drama): 12 Years a Slave
ACTOR (Drama): Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
ACTRESS (Drama): Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine

PICTURE (Musical or Comedy): American Hustle
ACTOR (Musical or Comedy): Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
ACTRESS (Musical or Comedy): Amy Adams, American Hustle

DIRECTOR: Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
SCREENPLAY: Her- Spike Jonze
ANIMATED FEATURE: Frozen
FOREIGN FILM: The Great Beauty (Italy)
SCORE: All is Lost- Alex Ebert
SONG: "Ordinary Love," Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

BAFTA Nominations

Gravity leads the pack, with 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle (which earned four acting nominations-- one for each category) coming up very strong and a very Oscar-y (and Philomena-y field.)  Here are the 2013 British Academy of Film & Television Awards nominations.

BEST FILM
12 Years a Slave
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Gravity
Philomena

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
Gravity
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Philomena
Rush
Saving Mr. Banks
The Selfish Giant 

BEST DIRECTOR
Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity
Paul Greengrass, Captain Phillips
Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST ACTOR
Christian Bale, American Hustle
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave     
Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips

BEST ACTRESS
Amy Adams, American Hustle
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock, Gravity
Judi Dench, Philomena
Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Barkahd Abdi, Captain Phillips
Daniel Brühl, Rush
Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
Matt Damon, Behind the Candelabra
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS 
Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave
Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
Oprah Winfrey, Lee Daniels' The Butler  

A "Frozen" Box Office

2...1...2...3...2...1.  No we're not suffering from binary Tourettes-- that's the box office ranking trajectory of Disney's seemingly unstoppable Frozen, which in it's sixth week of national release tops the box office chart.  After a big opening in November, the animated film rebounded over the holidays, nearly stealing the thunder away from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.  Surprising, especially in the blink-and-it's-gone normal track record for current films, Frozen rang supreme for the first weekend of the 2014.  The film, which is just a hop skip away from the $300 million mark, unseated the only new film in the marketplace-- Paranormal Activity: The Mark Ones-- and gave all the new and shiny Christmas toys a run for its money.

1. Frozen- $20.7 / -27% / $297.8 total
2. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones- $18.2 (NEW)
3. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug- $16.2 / -44% / $229.6 total
4. The Wolf of Wall Street- $13.4 / -27% / $63.2 total
5. American Hustle- $13.2 / -29% / $88.7 total
6. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues- $11.1 / -43% / $109.1 total
7. Saving Mr. Banks- $9.0 / -32% / $59.3 total
8. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty- $8.2 / -35% / $45.6 total
9. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire- $7.4 / -26% / $407.4 total
10. Grudge Match- $5.4 / -23% / $24.9 total
11. 47 Ronin- $5.4 / -49% / $32.6 total
12. Walking with Dinosaurs- $3.7 / -48% / $31.3 total
13. Tyler Perry's A Medea Christmas- $3.1 / -54% / $50.4 total
14. Philomena- $1.5 / -12% / $19.6 total
15. Inside Llewyn Davis- $1.1 / -5% / $6.9 total
16. Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom- $1.1 / -50% / $6.9 total
17. Her- $0.7 / +11% / $2.9 total
18. Nebraska- $0.6 / -9% / $7.0 total
19. Believe- $0.5 / -71% / $5.9 total
20. The Book Thief- $0.5 / -11% / $19.1 total
21. Gravity- $0.5 / -1% / $255.6 total
22. Thor: The Dark World- $0.4 / -23% / $203.4 total
23. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2- $0.4 / -6% / $117.6 total
24. 12 Years a Slave- $0.3 / -12% / $38.4 total

LIMITED RELEASES

• August: Osage County- $0.1 / -21% / $0.4 total
• Lone Survivor- $0.08 / -8% / $0.3 total
• The Past- $0.04 / +17% / 0.1 total
• The Invisible Woman- $0.03 / -5% / $0.1 total

In other news, Martin Scorsese's controversy-laden The Wolf of Wall Street appears to be not quite in as much trouble as first predicted after a troubling post-Christmas decrease and a reported "C" rating from CinemaScore.  The film, which Musings and Stuff has plenty to write about (even though the Internet has pretty much exhausted the entire subject) is coming together nicely, and may even be a hit when all is said and done-- that the film cost a reported $100 million is a hard pill to swallow however.  David O. Russell's American Hustle, by contrast, traded spots with Wolf from the previous week, but his ABSCAM con job cost a far more manage $40 million and thus is already in more sturdy shape.  Neither is Saving Mr. Banks nor The Secret Life of Walter Mitty in quite the trouble previously predicted either-- awards may not be in the cards per se (though Emma Thompson is assured a Best Actress nomination at this point), but those are in decent shape as well.  Banks even has a chance to clear $100 million, while Mitty will perform better abroad, as most Ben Stiller films do.

In just a click of a heel, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire will top Iron Man 3 as the top selling movie of 2013 as well as become the highest grossing film in the franchise.  This is interesting on a few levels, but mostly due to the fun (sad) fact as pointed out by The Film Experience, as it will become the first movie since The Sound of Music all the way back in 1965 to be a years top seller exclusively headlined by a member of the fairer sex.  Jennifer Lawrence, with an Oscar already and a third nomination just around the corner surely isn't lacking for prizes, but that's deserving of something-- perhaps a tea party with Julie Andrews at the very least.

What did you see this weekend?

And Now Things Get Serious (PGA Nominations)

Happy New Year.  Musings and Stuff took an unexpected break for the holidays, and all the exhaustion that comes with this time of year, but it's time to start fresh as the 2013 Oscar Race is ever solidified (for better or worse) by today's announcement of the nominees of the best of the year from the Producers Guild Association of America.

The nominees are:

• 12 Years a Slave
• American Hustle
• Blue Jasmine
• Captain Phillips
• Dallas Buyers Club
• Gravity
• Her
• Nebraska
• Saving Mr. Banks
• The Wolf of Wall Street

The PGA have been a streak with the Best Picture Oscar since No Country For Old Men's victory in 2007, so the outcome here will more than likely be our eventual king of 2013.  Some the usual suspects (Captain Phillips, American Hustle, Gravity, Nebraska, 12 Years a Slave) arrive and are safe, but the remaining line-up is a bit harder to read, prompting confusion and more questions.

Is Blue Jasmine, long ago abandoned as the Cate Blanchett-only show, now a possible Best Picture nominee?

Can Dallas Buyers Club, fresh from its inexplicable SAG Ensemble nomination, join the fray?

Are Wolf of Wall Street and Her, passionately loved (and some corners hated) auteur projects, safe?

Just how telling is that lazy nomination for Saving Mr. Banks?

And of the snubs-- neither Inside Llewyn Davis, Lee Daniels' The Butler, Fruitvale Station, August: Osage County, Prisoners or All is Lost made the cut.  Are they DOA?  Interestingly, the Weinstein Company and their typically plentiful crop of prestige films didn't make the cut this year.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE (Almost didn't feel the need to include because it's just so depressing)

• The Croods
• Despicable Me 2
• Epic
• Frozen
• Monster's University

New York Film Critics Circle

And we're off!  The NYFCC starts the exhaustive critics leg of the 2013 awards season with David O. Russell's American Hustle starting off the awards season in a major way with three key wins including Best Picture.  Surprising so far in the least, in so much as evident by the Gotham's going for the Coen Brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis and today's reveal, perhaps this season will not be ruled by 12 Years a Slave, though NY did give it's director, Steve McQueen, the directing prize.  Missing out in NY, which may or may not be apropos of nothing, were films like Gravity, Nebraska, Captain Phillips, Philomena, August: Osage County, Before Midnight, Frances Ha and The Wolf of Wall Street (however with New York's early date, it's possible not everyone caught up with Scorsese's latest, which just started screening this past weekend.)

PICTURE: American Hustle
DIRECTOR: Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
ACTOR: Robert Redford, All is Lost
ACTRESS: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
SUPPORTING ACTOR:  Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
SCREENPLAY: American Hustle- Eric Singer & David O. Russell
ANIMATED FILM: The Wind Rises
DOCUMENTARY: Stories We Tell
FOREIGN FILM: Blue is the Warmest Color
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Inside Llewyn Davis- Bruno Delbonnel
FIRST FILM: Fruitvale Station- Ryan Coogler 
SPECIAL AWARD: Frederick Wiseman, documentarian 

First Teaser of David O. Russell's 'American Hustle'