Motion Picture Sound Editors Winners

The MPSE winners were:

SOUND EFFECTS & FOLEY IN AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE FEATURE
Gravity

DIALOGUE & ADR IN AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE FEATURE
Captain Phillips

BEST SOUND EDITING (Animated Feature)
Epic

BEST SOUND EDITING (Foreign Language Film)
The Grandmaster

BEST SOUND EDITING (Documentary)
Dirty Wars

MUSIC IN A MUSICAL FEATURE
Frozen

MUSIC IN A FEATURE
The Great Gatsby         

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

Writers Guild Award Winners

Her solidifies itself (YAY!) as the real deal for Original Screenplay (warding off that Oscar nomination giant that is American Hustle) while Captain Phillips surprises in the Adapted race, a call that surely be seen as consolation prize as 12 Years a Slave was deemed ineligible for the WGA award.

MOTION PICTURE

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Her- Spike Jonze
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Captain Phillips- Billy Ray
DOCUMENTARY: Stories We Tell- Sarah Polley

TELEVISION

DRAMA SERIES: Breaking Bad
COMEDY SERIES: Veep
VARIETY SERIES: The Colbert Report 
NEW TV SERIES: House of Cards
EPISODIC DRAMA: "Confessions"- Breaking Bad- Gennifer Hutchison
EPISODIC COMEDY: "Hogcock"- 30 Rock- Jack Burditt & Robert Carlock 
ANIMATION: "A Test Before Dying"-  The Simpsons- Joel H. Cohen

SCREEN LAURAL AWARD: Paul Mazursky
PAUL SELVIN AWARD: Alex Gibney, We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wiki-Leaks

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

Gravity 's Gravitational Pull

Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity accomplished the second weekend challenge times ten as grown up movies lead the pack of the weekend box office.  Gravity hovered ahead of everything else thanks largely to the price increases that IMAX and 3-D surcharges afford; word is out that this is indeed the one film that merits the most from large format screenings.  Easing a gentle 21% from its massive opening weekend (currently holding the record of the slightest second weekend drop for a film that opened to $55 million+; records themselves continue to be made up on the spot.)  Meanwhile Tom Hanks' awards hopeful Captain Phillips opened to strong number two, the best debut the 2-time Oscar winning actor has had since 2009's Angels & Demons (not counting Toy Story 3.)

1. Gravity- $43.1 million / -22% / $122 million total
2. Captain Phillips- $25.7 million / new
3. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2- $13.7 million / -34% / $77 million total
4. Machete Kills- $3.8 million / new
5. Runner Runner- $3.7 million / -51% / $14.1 million total
6. Prisoners- $3.6 million / -36% / $53 million total
7. Insidious Chapter 2- $2.7 million / -30% / $78.5 million total
8. Rush- $2.3 million / -46% / $22 million total
9. Don Jon- $2.3 million / -43% / $20 million total
10. Baggage Claim- $2 million / -50% / $18.2 million total
11. Enough Said- $1.9 million / -12% / $8.1 million total

FURTHER DOWN
Lee Daniels' The Butler- $0.6 / -49% / $113 million total
Romeo & Juliet- $0.5 / new
The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete- $0.2 / new
Blue Jasmine- $0.2 / -33% / $31 million total
Escape From Tomorrow- $63K / new
As I Lay Dying- $7K / new 

BFI London Film Festival Announces Slate

The London Film Festival is celebrating its 57th Anniversary this year.  The slate has been announced.

OPENING NIGHT GALA
Captain Phillips (US)- directed by Paul Greengrass

OFFICIAL SELECTION
Abuse of Weakness (France)- directed by Catherine Breillat
The Double (UK)- directed by Richard Ayoade
Ida (Poland)- directed by Pawel Pawlikowski
Like Father, Like Son (Japan)- directed by Hirokazu Koreeda
The Lunchbox (India)- directed by Ritesh Batra
Of Good Report (South Africa)- directed by Jahmil X.T. Qubeka
Parkland (US)- directed by Peter Landesman
Rags & Tatters (Canada)- directed by Ahmad Abdalla
The Selfish Giant (UK)- directed by Clio Barnard
Starred Up (UK)- directed by David Mackenzie
Tom at the Farm (Canada)- directed by Xavier Dolan
Tracks (UK)- directed by John Curran
Under the Skin (UK/USA)- directed by Jonathon Glazer

FIRST FEATURE COMPETITION (Contending for the Sutherland Award)
B for Boy (Nigeria)- directed by Chika Anadu
Hide Your Smiling Faces (US)- directed by Daniel Patrick Carbone
Ilo Ilo (Singapore)- directed by Anthony Chen
Kill Your Darlings (US)- directed by John Krokidas
The Long Way Home (Turkey)- directed by Alphan Eseli
Luton (Greece)- directed by Michalie Konstantatos
Salvo (Italy)- directed by Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza
Sarah Prefers to Run (Canada)- directed by Chloé Robihaud
Sixteen (UK)- directed by Rob Brown
Trap Street (Italy)- directed by Vivian Qu
Wounded- directed by Fernando Franco
Youth (Israel)- directed by Tom Shoval

New York Film Festival Line-Up

The 51st New York Film Festival has announced its official line-up.  Captain Phillips will open the festival, while The Secret Life of Walter Mitty will be the centerpiece gala and Her will close the prestigious film festival.

OPENING NIGHT
Captain Phillips (US)- Tom Hanks stars as in Paul Greengrass' latest intrigue-a-real life about the hijacking of of a US cargo ship by Somali pirates.  One of Sony's high button Oscar contenders.

MAIN LINE-UP

About Time

About Time (UK)- Domhall Gleeson (Anna Karenina) does the time warp in Richard Curtis' latest romantic fantasy co-starring Rachel McAdams and Bill Nighy.
Abuse of Weakness (France)- Catherine Breillat, director of Romance and Fat Girl, introduces her latest provocation starring Isabelle Huppert.
Alan Partridge (UK)- Declan Lowney's comedy starring Steve Coogan.
All is Lost (US)- J.C. Chandor's Margin Call follow-up is the one-man survival drama starring Robert Redford, a role that's had major awards talk since debuting in Cannes.
American Promise (US)- Docuementary by Joe Brewster and Michele Stephenson that follows two African American families.
At Berkeley (US)- Frederick Wiseman's documentary is a study of the famed University of Berekely.
Bastards (France)- Claire Denis' contemporary film noir makes it's North American premiere after debuting at Cannes this past May.
Blue is the Warmest Color (France)- The controversial Cannes Palme D'or winner from director Abdellatif Kechiche will continue to polarize in it's hopes of gaining awards traction.
Burning Bush (Czech Republic)- Czech mini-series from Europa Europa director Agnieszka Holland.

Child of God (US)- James Franco's Cormac McCarthy adaptation comes to NYFF after famously premiering at Cannes.