Creative Arts Emmy Award Winners

ACTING
GUEST ACTOR (DRAMA): Dan Bucatinsky, Scandal
GUEST ACTRESS (DRAMA): Connie Preston, The Good Wife
GUEST ACTOR (COMEDY): Bob Newhart, The Big Bang Theory
GUEST ACTRESS (COMEDY): Melissa Leo, Louie
VOICE PERFORMANCE: Lily Tomlin, An Apology to Elephants

ANIMATED PROGRAM: South Park
VARIETY SPECIAL: Kennedy Center Honors
REALITY PROGRAM: Undercover Boss
SPECIAL CLASS PROGRAMMING: The Tony Awards

ART DIRECTION
SINGLE CAMERA SERIES: Boardwalk Empire
MINI-SERIES/MOVIE: Behind the Candelabra

CASTING
DRAMA SERIES: House of Cards
COMEDY SERIES: 30 Rock
MINI-SERIES/MOVIE: Behind the Candelabra

CINEMATOGRAPHY
MULTIPLE CAMERA SERIES: How I Met Your Mother
SINGLE CAMERA SERIES: House of Cards
MINI-SERIES OR MOVIE: Top of the Lake

COSTUME DESIGN
SERIES: The Borgias
MINI-SERIES OR MOVIE: Behind the Candelabra

EDITING
SINGLE CAMERA PICTURE EDITING (DRAMA): Breaking Bad
SINGLE CAMERA PICTURE EDITING (COMEDY): The Office
MULTIPLE CAMERA PICTURE EDITING (COMEDY): How I Met Your Mother
SINGLE CAMERA PICTURE EDITING (MOVIE): Behind the Candelabra
PICTURE EDITING FOR NONFICTION PROGRAMMING: Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God

HAIRSTYLING
MULTI-CAMERA SERIES OF SPECIAL: Saturday Night Live

SINGLE CAMERA SERIES: Boardwalk Empire
MINI-SERIES OR MOVIE: Behind the Candelabra

MAKE-UP
MULTIPLE CAMERA SERIES OR SPECIAL: Saturday Night Live
SINGLE CAMERA SERIES: Game of Thrones
MINI-SERIES OR MOVIE: Behind the Candelabra

SOUND EDITING
SERIES: Boardwalk Empire
MINI-SERIES OR MOVIE: American Horror Story: Asylum

Full list here.

Television Critics Association Awards

The winners of the 28th Annual Television Critics Association Awards, which represents upwards of 220 television journalists for print and the web, have been announced.

PROGRAM OF THE YEAR: Breaking Bad (AMC)

OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES: Game of Thrones (HBO)

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES: (tie) The Big Bang Theory (CBS); Parks & Recreation (NBC)

OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM: The Americans (FX)

OUTSTANDING MOVIE/MINISERIES: Behind the Candelabra (HBO)

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black (BBC)

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: Louis C.K., Louie (FX)

BEST YOUTH PROGRAM: Bumheads (ABC Family)

BEST NEWS/INFORMATION SHOW: Central Park Five- Ken Burns (PBS)

BEST REALITY PROGRAM: Shark Tank (ABC)

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Barbara Walters

HERITAGE AWARD: Norman Lear

Broadcast Television Journalists Association

The Critics Choice Award winners are:

COMEDY SERIES
BEST SERIES: The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
BEST ACTOR: Louis C.K., Louie (FX)
BEST ACTRESS: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep (HBO)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Simon Helberg, The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: (tie) Kaley Cuoco, The Big Bang Theory (CBS); Eden Sher, The Middle (ABC)
BEST GUEST PERFORMER: Patton Oswalt, Parks & Recreation (NBC)

DRAMA SERIES
BEST SERIES: (tie) Breaking Bad (AMC); Game of Thrones (HBO)
BEST ACTOR: Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad (AMC)
BEST ACTRESS: Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black (BBC)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Michael Cudlitz, Southland (TNT)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Monica Potter, Parenthood (NBC)
BEST GUEST PERFORMER: Jane Fonda, The Newsroom (HBO)

MOVIE OR MINI-SERIES
BEST MOVIE: Behind the Candelabra (HBO)
BEST ACTOR: Michael Douglas, Behind the Candelabra (HBO)
BEST ACTRESS: Elizabeth Moss, Top of the Lake (Sundance)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Zachary Quinto, American Horror Story: Asylum (FX)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Sarah Paulson, American Horror Story: Asylum (FX)

BEST REALITY SERIES: (tie) Push Girls (Sundance); Duck Dynasty (A&E)
BEST REALITY SERIES (Competition): The Voice (NBC)
BEST REALITY HOST: Tom Bergeron, Dancing wth the Stars (ABC)
BEST TALK SHOW: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)
BEST ANIMATED SERIES: Archer (FX)
CRITICS' CHOICE INSPIRATION AWARD: Bunheads (ABC Family)
CRITICS' CHOICE TELEVISION ICON AWARD: Bob Newhart

Behind the Candelabra

The flamboyance, the excess, the grandeur, the more of it all is as much a part of the story of Liberace as the man beneath the sequined clothing.  Mr. Showman, the piano man, played up to the heavens with a decadent splendor that positively demanded that any screen treatment that could ever be conceived to paint his picture be the biggest, the flashiest and the most colorful.  Mere 3-D wouldn't be enough to showcase the all the glitter and jewels he bespectacled and properly do it justice.  On that note it is slightly surprising that a filmmaker like Steven Soderbergh, with his muted palette and fly on the wall choreography, would be such a natural to create such a vivid, potent, subtly multifaceted biography of his life and bizarre romance with a man much younger than he.  Ever more surprisingly and sufficiently saddening is the continuing announcement that this may in fact be Soderbergh's swan song from filmmaking.  With the seemingly non-congruent pieces of puzzle in place it only makes sense, I suppose, that Soderbergh's long in development Behind the Candelabra enters the fray with a bittersweet taste to go along with its unorthodox release.  Premiering on HBO instead of the three-thousand screens that typically befits a starry-eyed Soderbergh production-- the main players here are Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, both of whom have ample experience with the filmmaker-- and coming off its in-competition berth at the Cannes Film Festival.

For a subject so peculiar and a film so fascinating, it's both a joyous and sad event that Behind the Candelabra couldn't fashion itself into movie screens.  A subject as big and brash and colorful as Liberace (and the performance that Douglas creates to match it) deserve it, but more so, seemingly demand it.  The small screen almost comes across as an insult for an entertainer who always dreamed a bigger dream than the last.  "To much of a good thing is wonderful," is a clever and cheeky line of dialogue, but Douglas devours it as a mantra.  On the other hand, Behind the Candelabra is a rarefied film in itself-- refined but bawdy, delicate but complex, unrestricted but classy, and one suggests that the practice of the Hollywood machine may have diluted Soderbergh's soulful vision to point of worthless dither, on top of the choice reasoning that the filmmaker states that the film was "too gay" for the focus testers in the film industry.  Of which may very well be true, but to deny a story of Liberace of its "gay-ness" for the sensitivity of weary consumers would be, well, to lie.  On this end, it's for the films betterment that every major studio, as reported, passed on Behind the Candelabra.

Cannes ----> Oscar?!?!

Fun fact: only two movies have ever won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival as well as the Best Picture Academy Award.  Ever.  In history.  In that, it brings a certain irony that the festival strikes a chord and chill year after year for potential and future awards crystal ball gazing.  The last time Cannes and the Academy agreed was in 1955- for Marty, so it's not even a close record.  It's unsurprising that the cool and the fabulous creed that makes up the most esteemed film festival in history would veer off from the typically middlebrow consciousness of AMPAS naval-gazing.  It's a yearly document, however, of the lofty legacy of the year of cinema though and the Cannes programmers and the Hollywood distributors have perhaps always been bedfellows, even if the yearly jurors tend to dismiss the competition options that may have a chance of gold statutes in the their future.  Still, it would nice if one day Marty and Billy Wilder's 1964 addiction drama The Lost Weekend had some company.  Not that there haven't been contenders.  The following are films that won the Palme d'Or and collected a Best Picture nomination sans prize:

• Friendly Persuasion (1957)
• M*A*S*H (1970)
• The Conversation (1974)
• Taxi Driver (1976)
• Apocalypse Now (1979)
• All That Jazz (1980)
• Missing (1982)
• The Mission (1986)
• The Piano (1993)
• Pulp Fiction (1994)
• Secrets & Lies (1996)
• The Pianist (2002)
• The Tree of Life (2011)
• Amour (2012)

Cannes Film Festival

The line-up for the 2013 Festival de Cannes is currently being announced.

OPENING FILM:

• The Great Gatsby (USA)- directed by Baz Luhrmann- out of competition

IN COMPETITION:

• Behind the Candelabra (USA)- directed by Steven Soderbergh- Soderbergh's HBO film about the relationship between Liberace (Michael Douglas) and his much younger boyfriend (Matt Damon.)  Rumored to be Soderbergh's final film; Soderbergh won the Palme D'Or for his breakout film, sex, lies and videotape.
• Borgman (The Netherlands)- directed by Alex van Warmerdam
• Grigris (France)- directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
• Heli (Spain)- directed by Arnat Escalante
• The Immigrant (USA)- directed by James Gray- Gray's romantic drama stars Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Renner and Marion Cotillard and tells the story of an immigrant woman and a dazzling musician.  Gray previously visited Cannes with Two Lovers, also starring Phoenix.
• Inside Llewyn Davis (USA)- directed by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen- The Coen Brothers return to Cannes (their first trip since No Country For Old Men in 2007) with their latest revolving around a 60s-era folk singer.  Stars Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan and Justin Timberlake.  CBS Films picked up the film for a fall release.
• Jeune et Jolie (France)- directed by Francois Ozon- The director of Under the Sand and 8 Women returns to Cannes with his latest, described as a portrait of a 17-year-old girl in four songs and four seasons.  Charlotte Rampling co-stars.
• Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian) (USA)- directed by Arnaud Desplechin- Cannes regular and French filmmaker Desplechin (A Christmas Tale) makes his English language debut starring Benicio Del Toro and Mathieu Amalric.
• La Grande Bellezza (France)- directed by Paolo Sorrentino- The story of an aging writer who bitterly recollects about this lost youth.  Sorrentino is no stranger to Cannes with This Must Be the Place (which starred Sean Penn as an aging rock star) and Il Divo, which won the Jury Prize in 2008.
• La Vie D'Adele (France)- directed by Abdellatif Kechiche
• Michael Kohlhass (France)- directed by Arnaud des Pallieres- French period drama starring Mads Mikkelsen.
• Nebraska (USA)- directed by Alexander Payne- Payne returns to Cannes (he previously brought About Schmidt in 2002) with his latest family-strewn drama, this one stars Bruce Dern, Will Forte and Stacey Keach.  Paramount plans to release this film sometime later this year.  Curiously many reported Nebraska wouldn't be ready in time for Cannes.
• Only God Forgives (USA)- directed by Nicolas Winding Refn- Refn's follow-up to Drive, which earned him the Directors Prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, is a grisly noir with Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas.  The trailer has already elicited fan boy excitement and is due for release stateside, courtesy of Radius/TWC this summer.
• The Past (The Netherlands)- directed by Asghar Farhardi- Farhardi follows-up the Oscar-winning A Separation with another tale of marital strife starring Berenice Bejo and Tahar Rahim.  Coincidentally, Cannes passed on the opportunity to screen A Separation two years ago.
• Shield of Straw (Japan)- directed by Takashi Miike- From the director of 13 Assassins.
• Soshite Chichi Ni Naru (Like Father, Like Son) (Japan)- directed by Hirokazu Koreeda
• Tian Zhy Ding (South Korea)- directed by Khang Ke Jia
• Un Chateau en Italie (France)- directed by Valera Bruni Tedeschi- Drama about a family forced to sell their family home.
• Venus in Fur (France)- directed by Roman Polanski- Drama concerning an actress trying to convince a director she's perfect for a part; based on the play by David Ives.  Polanski won the Palme D'Or in 2002 for The Pianist.

OUT OF COMPETITION:

• All is Lost (USA)- directed by J.C. Chandor- Survival story starring Robert Redford from the writer/director of Margin Call.
• Blood Ties (USA)- directed by Guillaume Canet- Crime drama about two brothers on opposing sides of the law.  Clive Owen, Mila Kunis, Zoe Saldana, and in her second Cannes film of 2013, Marion Cotillard, star.

UN CERTAIN REGARD:

• The Bling Ring (USA)- directed by Sophia Coppola (opener)- Previously reported.
• Anonymous (Iran)- directed by Mohammad Rasoulof
• As I Lay Dying (USA)- directed by James Franco- Franco directs and adapts the William Faulkner novel.
• Bends- directed by Flora Lau
• Death March- directed by Adolfo Alix, Jr.
• Fruitvale Station (USA)- directed by Ryan Coogler- Given an extended title since winning the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award and being snapped up by the Weinstein Company, Fruitvale will tour Cannes before entering art house cinemas this summer.
• Grand Central (France)- directed by Rebecca Zlotwski
• La Jaula de Oro (Spain)- directed by Diego Quernada-Diez
• Les Salauds (France)- directed by Claire Denis- The legendary Denis (White Material, Beau Travail) returns to Cannes with her latest.
• L'Image Manquante (France)- directed by Rithy Panh
• L'Inconnu du Lac (France)- directed by Alain Guiraudie
• Miele (Italy)- directed by Valeria Golino
• Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan (The Philippines)- directed by Lav Diaz
• Omar (Israel)- directed by Hany Abu-Assad
• Sarah Prefere La Course (Canada)- directed by Chloe Robichaud

Special screenings:

• Otdat Konci – Taisia Igumentseva
  
• Seduced and Abandoned – James Toback
  
• Week of a Champion – Roman Polanski
  
• Stop the Pounding Heart – Roberto Minervini
  
• Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight – Stephen Frears
  
• Max Rose – Daniel Noa

Midnight screenings:

• Blind Detective – Johnnie To
  
• Monsoon Shootout – Amit Kumar

CLOSING FILM:

• Zulu (France)- directed by Jerome Salle