Cinema Audio Society

SOUND MIXING (Live Action): Gravity
SOUND MIXING (Animated Film): Frozen

SOUND MIXING (TV Movie): Behind the Candelabra
SOUND MIXING (One Hour TV): Game of Thrones
SOUND MIXING (Half Hour TV): Modern Family

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         

DGA Winners

Cuarón directs Sandra Bullock and George Clooney

MOTION PICTURE
FEATURE FILM: Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity
DOCUMENTARY: Jehane Noujaim, The Square

TELEVISION
DRAMA SERIES: Breaking Bad- Vince Gilligan
COMEDY SERIES: 30 Rock- Beth McCarthy-Miller
TV MOVIE: Behind the Candelabra- Steven Soderbergh
REALITY PROGRAM: 72 Hours: The Last Coast- Neil P.  Degroot
VARIETY/TALK/NEWS SPECIAL: 67th Annual Tony Awards- Glenn Weiss 

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.

ACE Eddie Award Nominations

The American Cinema Editors "Eddies" are the latest guild to announce their picks for the best of the year.  They're a big one too, as the Film Editing Oscar is sometimes predictive of the Best Picture.

BEST FILM EDITING (Drama)
12 Years a Slave- Joe Walker
Captain Phillips- Christopher Rouse
Gravity- Alfonso Cuarón & Mark Sanger
Her- Eric Zumbrunnen & Jeff Buchanan
Saving Mr. Banks- Mark Livolski

Notice that Her, a comedy by the standards of the Globes gets a drama mention by the ACE Eddies, furthering confusing the line between this years highly subjective comedy/drama divide.

BEST FILM EDITING (Musical/Comedy)
American Hustle- Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers & Alan Baumgarten
August: Osage County- Stephen Mirrione
Inside Llewyn Davis- Roderick Jaynes
Nebraska- Kevin Tent
The Wolf of Wall Street- Thelma Schoonmaker

BEST FILM EDITING (Animated Feature)
Despicable Me- Gregory Perler
Frozen- Jeff Draheim
Monsters University- Greg Synder

BEST FILM EDITING (Documentary Feature)
20 Feet From Stardom- Douglas Blush, Kevin Klauber & Jason Zeldes
Blackfish- Eli Despres
Tim's Vermeer- Patrick Sheffield

Costume Designers Guild

The final guild mention of the season!

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

PERIOD FILM: Anna Karenina- Jacqueline Durran

FANTASY FILM: Mirror Mirror- Eiko Ishioka

CONTEMPORARY FILM: Skyfall- Jany Temime

MPSE Awards

The Motion Picture Sound Editors guild have announced their best of 2012.  Sound Editing and Sound Mixing vary, not that you could really notice much considering both categories typically consist of the same movies on the Oscar ballot year after year.  It's a bit confusing-- mixing consists of the overall landscape of a films sound design with dialogue, effects and score all blending together, whereas editing is the creation of said effects in the overall sound design of a film.  I suppose its best to think of the categories as both the marco and micro of a motion pictures soundscape.  Here are the winners:

BEST SOUND EDITING: MUSIC IN A FEATURE FILM
Life of Pi

BEST SOUND EDITING: MUSIC IN A MUSICAL FILM
Les Miserables

BEST SOUND EDITING: DIALOGUE OR ADR IN A FEATURE FILM
Life of Pi

BEST SOUND EDITING: EFFECTS OR FOLEY IN A FEATURE FILM
Skyfall    

WGA Winners

The Writers Guild Association of America has spoken:

Argo scribe Chris Terrio confirms the inevitable with his WGA victory.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Zero Dark Thirty- Marc Boal

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Argo- Chris Terrio

BEST DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY
Searching for Sugar Man- Malik Bendjelloul

Cinema Audio Society

The honors for Best Sound Mixing go to:

BEST SOUND MIXING

LIVE ACTION: Les Miserables
ANIMATED: Brave

I do wonder if Les Miserables is a spoiler for Best Sound Mixing, in a category that appears fairly wide open.  Musicals typically get nominated (Chicago, Moulin Rouge!, Dreamgirls), but hardly win.  I wonder if the live singing aspect might just give it the edge.  Also, all this guild support for Brave makes me wonder if it might take the lead in Best Animated Feature.

ACE Eddies Awards

The American Cinema Editors prize is a big one as the Best Film Editing prize is typically linked to the Best Picture prize (not that such things matter much as any more.)   The ACE Eddies are an integral guild mention.  Here are the winners:

BEST FILM EDITING

DRAMA: Argo- William Goldenberg
MUSICAL OR COMEDY: Silver Linings Playbook- Jay Cassidy & Crispin Struthers
ANIMATED FEATURE: Brave- Nicholas C. Smith
DOCUMENTARY: Searching for Sugar Man- Malik Bendjelloul

VES Awards

The Visual Effects Society favored Life of Pi and Brave.  The Visual Effects Academy Award looks like a virtual lock for Ang Lee's oceanic adventure.

VISUAL EFFECTS IN AN EFFECTS DRIVE FILM
Life of Pi

OUTSTANDING ANIMATION IN AN ANIMATED FILM
Brave

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS
The Impossible

OUTSTANDING ANIMATED CHARACTER IN A LIVE ACTION FILM
Life of Pi- Richard Parker

OUTSTANDING ANIMATED CHARACTER IN AN ANIMATED FILM
Brave- Merida

OUTSTANDING FX/SIMULATION IN A LIVE ACTION FILM
Life of Pi- Storm of God

OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT IN A LIVE ACTION FILM
Marvel's The Avengers- Midtown Manhattan

OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT IN AN ANIMATED FILM
Brave- The Forest

OUTSTANDING VIRTUAL CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING
Life of Pi- Storm of God

OUTSTANDING MODELS
Marvel's The Avengers- Helicarrier

OUTSTANDING FX/SIMULATION IN AN ANIMATED FILM
Brave

Two hiss fit points on Visual Effects.  Firstly, the Academy's saddening rejection of The Impossible with its bravura tsunami sequence-- a brilliant display of visual effects as storytelling, a point made even more shameless with the inclusion of the weaker, but similar Academy-approved take in Clint Eastwood's wan Hereafter a few year back.  The second one is a bit more complex, and likely involves a great deal more in the politics of rewarding the best in filmmaking than the actual fruits of the labor itself.  It was unsurprising that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey would make the cut-- a clearly a deserving one considering the immense visual achievement, but the horror or shrieks come from the fact the film, a deviation of the already hugely honored Lord of the Rings films was shortlisted without actually being viewed by its jury.  That's shameful!          

DGA Awards

BEN AFFLECK WINS THE DGA!!

The Best Directors of 2012:

FEATURE FILM: Ben Affleck, Argo
ANIMATED FEATURE: Rich Moore, Wreck-It-Ralph
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: Malik Bendjelloul, Searching for Sugar Man
DRAMA SERIES: Rian Johnson, Breaking Bad (Fifty-One)
COMEDY SERIES: Lena Dunham, Girls (Pilot) 
TELEVISION MOVIE: Jay Roach, Game Change
ROBERT B. ALDRICH AWARD: Michael Apted
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN NEWS DIVISION: Frank Shapiro 
FRANKLIN J. SCHAFFNER AWARD: Dency Nelson
DGA LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Milos Forman

Art Directors Guild

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN (Contemporary Film)
Skyfall- Dennis Gassner

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN (Fantasy Film)
Life of Pi- David Gropman

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN (Period Film)
Anna Karenina- Sarah Greenwood

A Brief History of the DGA

The Directors Guild announced their picks for Best Director of 2012 tonight, and perhaps a lot may be telling of the eventual winner.  The DGA has always been the sturdiest signifier of the eventual Best Picture Oscar winner.  And yet, this year is a bit wild-- what with the 2\5 overlap from the DGA and Best Director Oscar nominees.  The DGA selected this year:

• Ben Affleck, Argo
• Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
• Tom Hooper, Les Miserables
• Ang Lee, Life of Pi
• Steven Spielberg, Lincoln

Only Spielberg and Lee transferred onto the Academy list.  Calling attention the surge for Argo lately, it seems assured a victory tonight.  However, Spielberg is the the most honored DGA recipient of all time-- winning a record breaking 3 times (The Color Purple, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan.)

Here's a look of the DGA history:

1948: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, A Letter to Three Wives
1949: Robert Rossen, All the King's Men
1950: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, All About Eve
1951: George Stevens, A Place in the Sun
1952: John Ford, The Quiet Man
1953: Fred Zinnemann, From Here to Eternity
1954: Elia Kazan, On the Waterfront
1955: Delbert Mann, Marty
1956: George Stevens, Giant
1957: David Lean, The Bridge on the River Kwai
1958: Vincent Minnelli, Gigi
1959: William Wyler, Ben-Hur
1960: Billy Wilder, The Apartment
1961: Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins, West Side Story
1962: David Lean, Lawrence of Arabia
1963: Tony Richardson, Tom Jones
1964: George Cukor, My Fair Lady
1965: Robert Wise, The Sound of Music
1966: Fred Zinnemann, A Man For All Seasons
1967: Mike Nichols, The Graduate
1968: Anthony Harvey, The Lion in Winter
1969: John Schlesinger, Midnight Cowboy
1970: Franklin J. Schaffner, Patton
1971: William Friedkin, The French Connection
1972: Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather
1973: George Roy Hill, The Sting
1974: Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather: Part II
1975: Milos Forman, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1976: John J. Avildsen, Rocky
1977: Woody Allen, Annie Hall
1978: Michael Cimino, The Deer Hunter
1979: Robert Benton, Kramer vs. Kramer
1980: Robert Redford, Ordinary People
1981: Warren Beatty, Reds
1982: Richard Attenborough, Gandhi
1983: James L. Brooks, Terms of Endearment
1984: Milos Forman, Amadeus
1985: Steven Spielberg, The Color Purple
1986: Oliver Stone, Platoon
1987: Bernardo Bertolucci, The Last Emperor
1988: Barry Levinson, Rain Man
1989: Oliver Stone, Born on the Fourth of July
1990: Kevin Costner, Dances with Wolves
1991: Jonathon Demme, The Silence of the Lambs
1992: Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven
1993: Steven Spielberg, Schindler's List
1994: Robert Zemeckis, Forrest Gump
1995: Ron Howard, Apollo 13
1996: Anthony Minghella, The English Patient
1997: James Cameron, Titanic
1998: Steven Spielberg, Saving Private Ryan
1999: Sam Mendes, American Beauty
2000: Ang Lee, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2001: Ron Howard, A Beautiful Mind
2002: Rob Marshall, Chicago
2003: Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2004: Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby
2005: Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
2006: Martin Scorsese, The Departed
2007: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
2008: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
2009: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
2010: Tom Hooper, The King's Speech
2011: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist

In bold indicates a Best Picture winner.

In the last twenty years- the DGA has only missed with the eventual Best Picture Academy Award winner four times-- and all have a link to this years race as well.

1995: Ron Howard won for Apollo 13 despite being snubbed by the Oscars (like Affleck this year), Braveheart won Best Picture and Director that year.  Coincidentally, Ang Lee-- nominated by both DGA and AMPAS this year for Life of Pi, earned a DGA nod, but no Oscar nod for Sense and Sensibility.

1998: Spielberg won the DGA and the Best Director Oscar for Saving Private Ryan, but in the one of the biggest upsets in Academy history, the Weinstein-steamrolled Shakespeare in Love took Best Picture.

2000: In one of the tightest Oscar races in recent history, Ang Lee popped up as the DGA pick for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, though he lost the Best Director Oscar to Steven Soderbergh for Traffic, and Gladiator took Best Picture.

2005: Another huge Oscar upset occurred win Brokeback Mountain won the DGA and the Directing Oscar for, but of course, Ang Lee, but Crash won the top prize at the Oscars.

We await for the news!

SAG Awards- The Best Bad Idea

ENSEMBLE: Argo
ACTOR: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
ACTRESS: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables


Argo is tops with the Screen Actors Guild winning the Best Ensemble prize last evening, topping off its PGA victory Saturday, which coupled with the Golden Globe and Critics Choice wins implies that despite the very odd omission from director Ben Affleck in the Best Director Oscar line-up...it is the undisputed leader.  Lincoln won two prizes, the most of any film, but it's lack of Best Picture prizes signals on also-ran quality to what, on paper at least, seems like the quintessential Best Picture of the year.  It's an interesting development to this year of mystery and that Affleck-Oscar omission, seeming to tell of weakness to a film that, has in truth, in the thick of the awards hunt since its celebrated debut last fall at Telluride and Toronto, onward to mass populist and critical appeal.  However, it's done just the opposite to damper its chances, igniting an underdog feeling-- a strange one to the undisputed frontrunner.

I've long believed since its debut that Argo was an Oscar powerhouse, with its jabs at relevance within a Middle Eastern historical period piece (set long enough ago not to ignite waves, like it's darker cousin-- the problem child Zero Dark Thirty, but not so long ago not to be considered purely a stately period show)--  more importantly the film showcases a love of the film industry; and that kind of showmanship appeared as genuine fodder for AMPAS.

Personally, my prediction record with the 2012 awards season is spotty-- I expected a Silver Linings-upset at SAG, netting three out of five correctly.  Best Supporting Actor appears to be my personal undoing this year....

PGA Awards--- Argo F!@# Yourself!

The Producers Guild Association of America has chosen their field for the best of 2012.  The first guild honor of the season and a potential unlocking to the Oscar race, as the PGA, awarding prizes since 1990, has a fairly strong correspondence.  In the past five years, they've matched perfectly with the eventual Best Picture winner, while sometimes choosing left honorees like Little Miss Sunshine and Moulin Rouge!.  Here are the 2012 results:

MOTION PICTURE: Argo
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: Searching for Sugar Man
ANIMATED FEATURE: Wreck-It-Ralph

And the surging momentum for Argo, fresh from its Golden Globe and Critics Choice victories after that strange and mysterious Best Director snub for Ben Affleck, continues...soars perhaps.  No film has famously won the Best Picture Oscar without a matching Director nomination since Driving Miss Daisy, but statistically, with the Golden Globe, and now the PGA in the bag, Argo is taking great shape in this weird and exciting awards season.  It's worth noting that the PGA uses the same preferential balloting that the Academy uses, and a film like Argo, a great lop down the middle, is surging.  Had the PGA gone with Lincoln, a strong frontrunner despite its empty nest of Best Picture prizes, or Silver Linings Playbook, a safely presumed third, it may have added a greater degree of mystery to this years award season, however Argo seems, at least for now-- or till tomorrow evening when the Screen Actors Guild announce their winners-- the top despite its supposed weaknesses.

PGA Awards

The Producers Guild Association of America has chosen their field for the best of 2012.  The first guild honor of the season and a potential unlocking to the Oscar race, as the PGA, awarding prizes since 1990, has a fairly strong correspondence.  In the past five years, they've matched perfectly with the eventual Best Picture winner, while sometimes choosing left honorees like Little Miss Sunshine and Moulin Rouge!.  Here are the 2012 results:

MOTION PICTURE: Argo
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: Searching for Sugar Man
ANIMATED FEATURE: Wreck-It-Ralph

And the surging momentum for Argo, fresh from its Golden Globe and Critics Choice victories after that strange and mysterious Best Director snub for Ben Affleck, continues...soars perhaps.  No film has famously won the Best Picture Oscar without a matching Director nomination since Driving Miss Daisy, but statistically, with the Golden Globe, and now the PGA in the bag, Argo is taking great shape in this weird and exciting awards season.  It's worth noting that the PGA uses the same preferential balloting that the Academy uses, and a film like Argo, a great lop down the middle, is surging.  Had the PGA gone with Lincoln, a strong frontrunner despite its empty nest of Best Picture prizes, or Silver Linings Playbook, a safely presumed third, it may have added a greater degree of mystery to this years award season, however Argo seems, at least for now-- or till tomorrow evening when the Screen Actors Guild announce their winners-- the top despite its supposed weaknesses.

Costume Designer Guild Nominations

BEST COSTUME DESIGN (Period Film)
Anna Karenina- Jacqueline Durran
Argo- Jacqueline West
Les Miserables- Paco Delgado
Lincoln- Joanna Johnston
Moonrise Kingdom- Kasia Walicka-Maimone

BEST COSTUME DESIGN (Contemporary Film)
Beasts of the Southern Wild- Stephani Lewis
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel- Louise Stjernsward
Silver Linings Playbook- Mark Bridges
Skyfall- Jany Temime
Zero Dark Thirty- George L. Littl

BEST COSTUME DESIGN (Fantasy Film)
Cloud Atlas- Kym Barrett & Pierre-Yves Gayraud
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey- Ann Maskrey, Richard Taylor & Bob Buck
The Hunger Games- Judianna Makovsky
Mirror Mirror- Eiko Ishioka
Snow White & the Huntsman- Colleen Atwood

ACE Eddie Nominations

BEST FILM EDITING (Drama)
Argo- William Goldenberg
Life of Pi- Tim Squyres
Lincoln- Michael Kahn
Skyfall- Stuart Baird
Zero Dark Thirty- Dylan Tichenor & William Goldenberg

BEST FILM EDITING (Comedy or Musical)
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel- Chris Gill
Les Miserables- Melanie Ann Oliver & Chris Dickens
Moonrise Kingdom- Andrew Weisblum
Silver Linings Playbook- Jay Cassidy & Crispin Struthers
Ted- Jeff Freeman

BEST FILM EDITING (Animated Feature)
Brave- Nicholas C. Smith
Frankenweenie- Chris Lebenzon & Mark Solomon
Rise of the Guardians- Joyce Arrastia
Wreck-It-Ralph- Tim Mertins

BEST FILM EDITING (Documentary Feature)
Samsara- Ron Fricke & Mark Magidson
Searching for Sugar Man- Malik Bendjelloul
West of Memphis- Billy McMillin

Directors Guild Nominees

And the five directors chosen by the Directors Guild Association of America are:

• Ben Affleck, Argo
• Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
• Tom Hooper, Les Miserables
• Ang Lee, Life of Pi
• Steven Spielberg, Lincoln

Ben Affleck is enjoying his first DGA nod, while the winners of the prize in 2009 and 2010, respectively, return with Bigelow and Hooper.  Lee won the prize twice for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain.  This is Spielberg's 10th nomination from the DGA, winning 3 times for Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List and The Color Purple.

All five of these directors as well as their films now must be taken as Best Picture locks, with Hooper possibly being the biggest surprise considering the (unfair) vitriol some critics have taken with Les Miserables; he still bested snubbed director David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook), Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained) and Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master), all of which have some work cut out for them as Oscar nominations are announced Thursday morning.