W.E. is the last of our Golden Globe nominated scores, perfect timing as the show airs this Sunday, and by far the most unexpected. In fact before this nomination I didn’t even know this movie existed. The film is actually directed by Madonna, which is interesting but not all together important for a review of it’s score.

The composer is Abel Korzeniowski and I can see why his excellent work was recognized by the Hollywood Foreign Press. The score is very well put together with an emphasis on large, sweeping strings in a few very choice places. Listening to the music gives me the sense that it probably dominates much of the movie. While I appreciate that sort of heavy handed musical touch, I can also see where it might have played a role in the films less than stellar critical reception.

I am happy to see it nominated though, as there has been a recent trend of nominating more subtle and subdued scores in the last few years. This is far from it, and it plays very nicely to my personal film musical tastes. Strong string work always has a tendency to grip me, and this score delivers that in spades.

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As with writers, Directors are pretty high on our list of important pieces of the film and TV making puzzle. If writers are the initial creative force that takes an idea from nothing and makes it into something, directors are the force that shapes that something into a clear vision and fulfills its potential for greatness. Or, they get it as close as it’s ever going to get.

With that in mind, the Directors Guild of America President Taylor Hackford today announced the five nominees for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2011.

“The directors nominated this year for the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film Award have each demonstrated an inspired command of the medium. The fact that their prodigious talents have been recognized by their peers is the highest honor a director can achieve,” said Hackford. “I offer my most sincere congratulations to each of the nominees.”

The winner will be named at the 64th Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, January 28, 2012, at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland.

The nominees are (in alphabetical order):

WOODY ALLEN
Midnight in Paris
(Sony Pictures Classics)
Mr. Allen’s Directorial Team:
Unit Production Managers: Matthieu Rubin, Helen Robin
First Assistant Director: Gil Kenny
Second Assistant Director: Delphine Bertrand

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For those who immediately tuned out the news about the 2012 Academy Awards after they heard that “retired” host Billy Crystal would be dusting off his tuxedo to get back up on stage, they had no idea what extents the Academy would go to in order to make you think that this isn’t your mom and dad’s Oscar show.

That’s why they pulled out the stops and collaborated with Funny or Die to put together this epic movie-style trailer featuring the likes of Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, Josh Duhamel, Megan Fox, William Fichtner and Vinnie Jones.

That’s right. Some pretty big star power. And if that isn’t enough for you to get into the Oscar mood, the team has also put together a pretty extensive YouTube channel, with some of the best monologues, acceptance speeches, and overall best moments.

Take a look at the epic trailer after the jump and be sure to tune in to what should be an entertaining Oscars on February 26th, only on ABC.

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Even though this website could technically be called a “Blog” and those of us who contribute to it are known as “Bloggers,” we like to think of ourselves as writers. So, when other writers get recognized, as they have by the Writer’s Guild of America’s nominations for it’s awards today, we take notice.

We also take notice when movies that seem an odd choice for awards get nominated anyway. We will leave it to you, good readers, to decide which of the following nominees for Writers Guild awards seems a bit out of place.

Winners will be announced at the 2012 Writers Guild Awards on Sunday, February 19, 2012, during simultaneous ceremonies in Hollywood and New York. Check out all the nominees (and more) from the official press release:

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

50/50, Written by Will Reiser; Summit Entertainment

Bridesmaids, Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig; Universal Studios

Midnight in Paris, Written by Woody Allen; Sony Pictures Classics

Win Win, Screenplay by Tom McCarthy; Story by Tom McCarthy & Joe Tiboni; Fox Searchlight

Young Adult, Written by Diablo Cody; Paramount Pictures

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In case you didn’t realize it, there’s a lot of groups in Hollywood that like to give awards. From the Screen Actors Guild to the Writers Guild to the big one, the Academy Awards, it often seems that Hollywod loves awards as much as it likes making movies.

Besides the ones mentioned above, there’s another group that gives awards each year: film and TV producers. That group, collectively known as the Producers Guild of America or PGA, has released its nominations today and we’ve got them for you, and the rest of their press release, below. Check it out.

LOS ANGELES, CA (January 3, 2012) – The Producers Guild of America (PGA) announced today the motion picture and long-form television nominations for the 23rd Annual Producers Guild Awards. The categories include: The Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures; The Producers Guild of America Producer of the Year Award in Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures; and The David L. Wolper Producer of the Year Award in Long-Form Television. The documentary film category and other television category nominations were already announced by the Guild in December 2011.

All 2012 Producers Guild Award winners will be announced on January 21, 2012 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. This year, the Producers Guild will also award special honors to Leslie Moonves (Milestone Award), Steven Spielberg (David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures), Don Mischer (Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television), Stan Lee (Vanguard Award), and IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY (The Stanley Kramer Award). The 2012 Producers Guild Awards co-chairs are Paula Wagner and Michael Manheim.

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In what will surely come as a surprise to many people who don’t follow the Internets (also, most likely to mainstream audiences), Terrence Malick’s The Tree Of Life was the top film at the 15h annual Online Film Critics Society Awards. The awards are given out by the Online Film Critics Society, an organization made up of film reviewers, journalists and scholars based in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Latin America and the Asia/Pacific Rim region.

Malick’s film took the top prize for best picture as well as director, supporting actress (Jessica Chastain), editing and cinematography. No other film won more than one award.

Michael Fassbender took best actor for Shame and Tilda Swinton was best actress for We Need To Talk About Kevin. Best supporting actor went to Christopher Plummer for Beginners.

Click through for the full list of winners:

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While the world of film and TV awards get more and more jaded to the hardcore fans, it’s time to pay more attention to the forms of media that could, very soon, become the new medium to-be. I’m talking about the form of New Media, or “web series”, which is becoming more and more of what kids are talking about these days.

With that comes, of course, a cornocopia of popular awards to give accolades to these hard-working men and women. One of these is for the The International Academy of Web Television, a freshman organization that’s made to bring more attention to the growing medium.

Yesterday, the nomimations for the first year of awards was announced, and as expected, Sean Becker & Felicia Day’s popular web series The Guild, and the excellent drama series RCVR made out like bandits. From Variety.

“RCVR” racked up a dozen nominations. The show focuses on covert government agents that try to suppress the truth about extraterrestrial encounters and hunt humans selected by an alien species to act as channels for advanced technologies. “The Guild,” a long-running Web series that is arguably the field’s most popular, picked up nine nominations.

Voting is currently underway and the show hits on January 12th in Vegas the upcoming CES. Take a look at the full nominees after the jump.

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The Screen Actors Guild annually awards excellence in screen acting, and has quickly become one of the more prestigious year end awards. The SAG awards are usually a solid indicator for Oscar glory in the acting categories, so seeing a few these names on this nominations list is a little surprising.

Chief among the unexpected nominees is the cast of Bridesmaids and Jonah Hill for Moneyball. Well deserved nominations, but certainly a tad shocking considering the strong year for acting all around. On the more expected front Modern Family takes in five acting nominations in just three categories.

I also appreciate that the awards honor stunt workers as well, this allows the Screen Actors Guild to broaden the scope of films they salute, and shines a light on a very important aspect of film making. The awards will be handed out Sunday, January 29th.

The full list of nominees after the jump:

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The Video Game Awards are an interesting thing. Like most basic cable award shows it often plays like a two- hour long advertisement for next year rather than a celebration of the current one. On the other hand, the Video Game industry does warrant a night to honor it’s very best, and the people who run the show clearly are interested putting forth the industry’s best foot in prime time.

This year’s show is going to have one huge advantage to keep the show credible and enjoyable. Zachary Levi, the geeky lead in Chuck and video game voice actor, has just been announced as the host for this year’s show.

“Zac Levi is an avid gamer who is truly a part of gaming culture and understands the fans,” says Casey Patterson, Executive Producer and Executive Vice President, Event Production, Talent & Studio Relations for Viacom Entertainment Group. “He has great ideas about this year’s show. Zac is all about honoring the year in gaming and ushering in the future by showcasing massive world premieres at this year’s event. We’re excited to be working with Zac.”

It is great for the show that it’s host is both a charming, likable guy and some one well versed in gaming culture. As the industry becomes more main stream it will need to rely on people who truly understand it’s culture and not just icons whom geeks decide to love.

The show will premiere live at 8:00 PM EST, Saturday December 10th on Spike TV, MTV 2 and SpikeTV.com

The nominations for the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards are out. These awards highlight the best in independent cinema and have often helped Academy Awards voters who don’t see indie films realie there’e more to life than what they get at the local multi-plex. Not that Academy Awards voters actually ever go to a multi-plex either.

Looking over the list we can guess what you’re thinking: where’s Michael Fassbender’s nomination for Shame? We don’t know either. We are, however, very happy to see Ryan Gosling, Nicolas Winding Refn and Albert Brooks get nods for their work on Drive. Great movie and great performances.

Here’s all the nominees:

BEST FEATURE
50/50 Producers: Evan Goldberg, Ben Karlin, Seth Rogen
Beginners Producers: Miranda de Pencier, Lars Knudsen, Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech, Jay Van Hoy
Drive Producers: Michel Litvak, John Palermo, Marc Platt, Gigi Pritzker, Adam Siegel
Take Shelter Producers: Tyler Davidson, Sophia Lin
The Artist Producer: Thomas Langmann
The Descendants Producers: Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor

BEST DIRECTOR
Michel Hazanavicius The Artist
Mike Mills Beginners
Jeff Nichols Take Shelter
Alexander Payne The Descendants
Nicolas Winding Refn Drive

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Award shows are all the rage these days. When people get burned out on the big three, the Oscars, Emmy’s, Golden Globes, they turn to more fun and entertaining (albeit less important ones) award shows. One of the more fun ones is definitely Spike’s annual Scream Awards.

Starting off celebrating the world of horror, the award show has since become a haven for all things pop culture and geeky, giving awards to the likes of Frank Miller or Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd for Back to the Future. This year, two modern icons are finally getting some love.

Two-time Academy Award nominee Robert Downey Jr. will attend to accept SCREAM’s prestigious Hero Award. With wildly successful films like “Sherlock Holmes” and “Iron Man,” Downey has captivated fans and critics alike with his daring and iconic interpretations of some of cinema’s most beloved characters.

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When mainstream Hollywood is busy making billions of dollars on rereleases of animated classics upgraded for 3D or movies with Morgan Freeman and a dolphin, it’s true independent cinema that holds some of the best stories and visuals.

That’s why we are seeing more and more film festivals pop up over the past few years, giving accolades to the up and coming filmmakers and writers who will one day run the town and bring art back to the theaters.

Shriekfest is one in the Los Angeles area that has been doing so for years. Since 2001, the international film fest has been bringing awareness to the lesser-known horror and science fiction filmmakers with films and shorts that easily surpass some of the movies we spend $10 to see every weekend.

This year’s winners have some of the most talented folks we’ve seen in some time, with aliens and monsters galore. Check out the full list of this year’s winners after the jump, and get the head start on checking out these films over at Shriekfest.com before your friends tell you about them first.

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