News

The 18th International Children’s Film Festival of India has announced the competition lineup for 2013. Some of the well-known Indian films in competition are Nagraj Manjule’s Fandry [Read interview], Shilpa Ranade’s Goopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya [Read interview] and Batul Mukhtiar’s Kaphal.

Organized by the Children’s Film Society of India, the biennial festival also known as The Golden Elephant will be held from November 14-20, 2013 in Hyderabad.

Competition Live Action

A Horse on the Balcony

Dir.: Hüseyin Tabak (Austria)

Tainá – an Amazon Legend

Dir.: Rosanne Svartman (Brazil)

Havanastation

Dir.: Ian Padrón (Cuba)

The Great Bird Chase

Dir.: Christian Dyekjær (Denmark)

Horizon Beautiful

Dir.: Stefan Jäger (Ethiopia, Switzerland)

Windstrom

Germany

Igor and the Cranes’ Journey

Dir.: Evgeny Ruman (Germany, Israel, Poland)

Fandry

Dir.: Nagraj Manjule (India)

Kaphal

Dir.: Batul Mukhtiar (India)

Good Fellows

Iran

7 Days of Himmawari and her Puppies

Dir.: Emiko Hiramatsu (Japan)

Mother,...

Previewing new musical and Tony Awards contender "Matilda": "'Matilda' has arrived red hot with the sort of acclaim, awards and ticket sales for its London production that indicate real potential to become a moneymaker and fan favorite in New York. Such success can confer the 'Broadway hit' label, which is crucial for starting productions in Asia, South America and across the United States and Europe — the tours where real fortunes are made. The dream is 'The Phantom of the Opera,' which has grossed $5.6 billion worldwide since 1986. The dream is 'The Lion King' ($5 billion since 1997) and 'Wicked' ($3 billion since 2003)." New York Times "Buzkashi Boys" star Fawad Mohammadi reflects on Hollywood and life in Kabul following the film's Oscar nomination for Best Live Action Short. Huffington Post Josef Adalian thinks it's a bad idea to rush to replace Jay Leno with Jimmy Fallon on "Th...

Just in case you missed the show, don't have a facebook account, twitter, a TV, radio, get the paper delivered, or have a smart phone or computer (which is weird since your on this site), here are the winners from the 85th Academy Awards: Best Picture Amour Argo (Winner) Beasts of the Southern Wild Django Unchained Lincoln Les Miserables Life of Pi Silver Linings Playbook Zero Dark Thirty Best Director Ang Lee, Life of Pi (Winner) Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook Michael Haneke, Amour Steven Spielberg, Lincoln Best Actor Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln (Winner) Denzel Washington, Flight Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook Joaquin Phoenix, The Master Best Actress Naomi Watts, The Impossible Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook (Winner) Emmanuelle Riva, Amour Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild Best Supporting Actor Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained (Winner) Philip Seymour Hoffman,...

If you didn't tune in for the Academy Awards last night, here's a short breakdown of what you missed: William Shatner showed up from the future, Jennifer Lawrence tripped and fell, and Michelle Obama co-presented the award for Best Picture. It was kind of a weird night, but for the most part, the hardware was handed out to all of the expected parties. Argo won Best Picture, Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor and Jennifer Lawrence won Best Actress. If there was a surprise, it was that Life of Pi walked away with the most awards (4) including Best Director for Ang Lee. Zero Dark Thirty got shut out of everything except for Best Sound Editing (in a rare tie with Skyfall). Quentin Tarantino was also a pleasant surprise for Best Original Screenplay. What did you think of this year's Oscars? What was the highlight of the night? How would you rate Seth McFarlane as host?...

The fill list of winner for the 85th Annual Academy Awards is below, 'Argo' was the named the film of the year:

Best Picture

Argo Winner

Amour

Django Unchained

Les Misérables

Life Of Pi Lincoln

Zero Dark Thirty

Beasts Of The Southern Wild

Silver Linings Playbook

Best Director

Life Of Pi - Ang Lee Winner

Lincoln - Steven Spielberg

Amour - Michael Haneke

Silver Linings Playbook - David O. Russell

Beasts Of The Southern Wild - Benh Zeitlin

Best Actor

Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln Winner

Denzel Washington - Flight

Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook

Hugh Jackman - Les Misérables

Joaquin Phoenix - The Master

Best Supporting Actor

Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained Winner

Alan Arkin - Argo

Robert De Niro - Silver Linings Playbook

Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Master

Tommy Lee Jones - Lincoln

Best Actress

Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook Winner

Emmanuelle Riva – Amour

Jessica Chastain...

Hollywood's most prestigious night is coming to an end inside the Dolby Theatre, and GossipCenter has the complete list of winners from Sunday's 85th Academy Awards.

Helmed by "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, celebrities gathered inside to find out which films received the historic Oscar winner recognition.

The top prize went to "Argo" taking home Best Film, while Ang Lee scored a win in the Best Director category.

Jennifer Lawrence and Daniel Day-Lewis can add a new title to their name after taking home the win for Best Actress and Best Actor, respectively.

Meanwhile, Adele, Norah Jones, and the cast of "Les Miserables" took to the stage to wow the crowd with amazing performances.

Take a look below for the complete list of the 2013 Academy Award winners!

Best Motion Picture of the Year

“Amour”

“Argo” Winner

“Beasts of the Southern Wild”

“Django Unchained”

“Les Misérables”

“Life of Pi”

“Lincoln”

“Silver Linings Playbook...

What a night! Seriously, the 2013 Oscars had its share of ups and downs and I'm sure plenty of hatred will be thrown the way of host Seth MacFarlane whose joke selection was all over the place from great to terrible to tasteless to tame, but I'm actually talking about the way tonight's Oscars shared the wealth so evenly. Twelve films won Oscars tonight, 15 if you count the shorts. Argo took home Best Picture, Film Editing and Adapted Screenplay, but in the end it was Life of Pi with the most awards, including the upset over Steven Spielberg (Lincoln). The Oscars often give us plenty to discuss in terms of taste and we all may disagree on many of the overall winners, but I have a much harder time disagreeing when there is no kind of consensus. After all, how often does one single film, over the span of 365 days nail...

This evening’s Oscar ceremony is now over, and with the dust settling on the biggest awards ceremony of the entire year, and the winners and losers celebrating and commiserating together, we’ve put together a full list of the winners (as well as the beaten nominees) for this year’s awards.

Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain nailed the red carpet, apparently, and Sandra Bullock did wonderful things with a diamond hair-clip, while Bradley Cooper and Chris Pine both proved that beards are very much the hot thing right now. But the big events were yet to happen inside the La venue, as the audience sat ready to receive host Seth MacFarlane, and his inevitably cutting humour.

For the most part, MacFarlane was reserved, though a few barbs did land before the end of the night. He played his part also in the excellent musical staging throughout the ceremony, whose highlights featured Shirley Bassey,...

Here is the complete winners list for the 2013 Academy Awards:

Best Picture: 

Amour

*Argo

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Django Unchained 

Les Misérables

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty

Best Actor: 

Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook

*Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Hugh Jackman, Les Misérables

Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

Denzel Washington, Flight

Best Actress: 

Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty

*Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Emmanuelle Riva, Amour

Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Photos: Oscars 2013 Red Carpet

Best Supporting Actor: 

Alan Arkin, Argo

Robert De Niro,...

Tonight, Hollywood's biggest stars are at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood for the 2013 Oscar Awards, and Et is bringing you all of the winners as they are announced! (Winners underlined).

Click here for full Oscar coverage.

Best Supporting Actor

Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook

Alan Arkin, Argo

Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

Best Original Song

Before My Time, Chasing Ice

Pi's Lullaby, Life of Pi

Suddenly, Les Miserables

Everybody Needs a Best Friend, Ted

Skyfall, Skyfall

Best Supporting Actress

Sally Field, Lincoln

Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

Helen Hunt, The Sessions

Amy Adams, The Master

Best Animated Film

Frankenweenie

The Pirates! Band of Misfits

Wreck-It Ralph

ParaNorman

Brave

Best Foreign Language Film

Amour

No

War Witch

A Royal Affair

Kon-Tiki

Best Adapted Screenplay

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Argo

Lincoln

Silver Linings Playbook

Life of Pi

Best Original Screenplay

Flight

Zero Dark Thirty

[link...

It’s the biggest night in Hollywoodland and we’re along for the crazy, caffeine-fueled night. Whether it’ll be Lincoln’s night or a wider net of awards there’ll be plenty to talk about for weeks to come.

If you’re on Twitter then follow us tweet the night away over at @heyuguys and you can keep abreast of all the winners as they are announced right here.

Ang Lee’s Life of Pi took home the most awards, with four statues to its name for Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects.

Ben Affleck’s Argo and Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables were next, taking three apiece. Affleck’s third feature took the most coveted award of the evening, very much deservedly winning him, George Clooney, and Grant Heslov the Best Picture award, as well as taking home the Best Film Editing and...

And in the end, it was the movie with a snubbed director that took the top prize. Ben Affleck's "Argo" rocked the Academy Awards by winning the Best Picture of the year award. The biggest surprise for me was Ang Lee who went home with the Best Director trophy for "Life of Pi" while Steven Spielberg went home empty handed. His "Lincoln" still won two Academy Awards, one for Best Actor for the great Daniel Day-Lewis' fine performance as our beloved 16th President, and the other for production design.

Just as I predicted to the lovely Anne Hathaway three months ago, she went home with the Best Supporting Actress trophy for her brilliant performance as Fantine in "Les Miserables." This sort of is a blessing from the Academy as well for turning in a memorable Catwoman performance in Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises."

Jennifer Lawrence won (and fell,...

The Oscars took place on Sunday with "Argo" ending up being the big winner of the night, despite the fact that Ben Affleck wasn't even nominated for Best Director. The film also won for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) and Best Editing. "Lincoln" was nominated for twelve Oscars, but ended up winning only two, including Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis and Production Design. Quentin Tarantino got an Oscar for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) for "Django Unchained." Christoph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor award for the same movie. Check out the full list of nominees and winners (marked in red) below. And let us know if you think the academy got it right. Best Picture: * Argo * Amour * Beasts of the Southern Wild * Django Unchained * Les Miserables * Life of Pi * Lincoln * Silver Linings Playbook * Zero Dark Thirty Directing: * Ang Lee (Life of Pi) * Michael Haneke (Amour) * Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild...

The Oscars are finally upon us, as tonight, host Seth McFarlane and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce the winners in the 85th annual Academy Awards. We have full coverage the show for you tonight here at We Got This Covered – including a complete live-blog of the event – but if you just want to learn about the winners as they are announced, keep your eyes on this article. It will be updated throughout the night with the winner in each category, the most recent announcement being brought to the top of the page.

Best Supporting Actor

Alan Arkin, Argo

Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook

Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

Winner: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Best Animated Short Film

Adam and Dog

Fresh Guacamole

Head over Heels

Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare”

Winner: Paperman

Best Animated Feature:

Winner: Brave

Frankenweenie

ParaNorman

The Pirates!

It’s the biggest night of the year for Hollywood — the 85th Annual Academy Awards! HollywoodLife.com has the live stream from the Red Carpet, and we’ll stream the entire ceremony as well! Look below for video.

See which stars are wearing what, whose showing sideboob and who ends up on our best and worst dressed lists. Hear from celebs such as Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Kristen Stewart and more as they make their way down the red carpet to Hollywood’s Dolby Theater for the 85th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 24! Click below to watch the live stream video.

Watch: Oscars Live Stream Video Full List Of Nominees:

Best Actor In A Leading Role:

Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook

Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln

Hugh Jackman in Les Misérables

Joaquin Phoenix in The Master

Denzel Washington in Flight

Best Actor In A Supporting Role:

Alan Arkin in Argo...

Jack Nicholson presents Best Picture, with broadcast footage from First Lady Michelle Obama:

Best Picture

“Beasts of the Southern Wild”

“Silver Linings Playbook”

“Zero Dark Thirty”

“Lincoln”

“Les Miserables”

“Life of Pi”

“Amour”

“Django Unchained”

“Argo”

Prediction: Lincoln

Should Have Won: Amour

Winner: Argo

Speech: 7/10

Well, Ben Affleck has his revenge and the Academy makes up for his Best Director snub and awards him with Best Picture.

Meryl Streep presents Best Actor:

Best Actor

Daniel Day Lewis, “Lincoln”

Denzel Washington, “Flight”

Hugh Jackman, “Les Miserables”

Bradley Cooper, “Silver Linings Playbook”

Joaquin Phoenix, “The Master”

Prediction: Daniel Day Lewis

Should Have Won: Joaquin Phoenix

Winner: Daniel Day Lewis

Speech: 8/10

For his third win, Day Lewis wins, as expected. Dedicated to his mother.

Jean Dujardin presents Best Actress:

Best Actress

Naomi Watts, “The Impossible”

Jessica Chastain, “Zero Dark Thirty”

Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”

Emmanuelle Riva, “Amour”

Quvenzhané Wallis, “Beasts of the Southern Wild...

Video - Digital Spy's movies team discuss the Oscars:

The winners of the 2013 Academy Awards will be unveiled tonight (February 24) at a star-studded ceremony from the Dolby Theatre in the Hollywood.

Family Guy and Ted creator Seth MacFarlane will be joined by a host of A-list Hollywood talent - including Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Adele, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lawrence and Ben Affleck - to celebrate the best films and performance of the last 12 months.

> Oscars 2013: Academy Awards live blog

> Oscars live stream: Red carpet arrivals

> Oscars 2013 red carpet pictures

Digital Spy presents a full list of winners from the Academy Awards - updated live - below:

Best Picture

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty

Lincoln

Les Misérables

Life of Pi

Amour

Django Unchained

Argo

Director

David O Russell (Silver Linings Playbook)

Ang Lee (Life of Pi) - Winner!

Steven Spielberg (Lincoln)

Michael Haneke (Amour...

Just as viewers seemed divided over Seth MacFarlane’s hosting of this year’s Oscars, so Academy voters were split over the films themselves. Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Amour, Lincoln, and Silver Linings Playbook all scored major awards, with Jennifer Lawrence and Daniel Day-Lewis winning the top acting Oscars. But Life of Pi director Ang Lee took home the Best Director prize while Argo won Best Picture. You can check out the full list of winners below.

Best Picture

Amour

Argo–Winner

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Django Unchained

Les Miserables

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty

Best Actor

Bradley Cooper,...

I'm predicting a big night for Michael Haneke, Argo and Daniel Day-Lewis

History be damned. A pox on precedent. A poke in gravitas's eye. This year it looks very much as if Argo, the nifty Iranian caper conjured up by Ben Affleck and George Clooney, will speed off with best picture, making it the first film to do so without a best director nomination since Driving Miss Daisy in 1989.

To those who say this riderless horse lacks the poundage of a typical best picture winner, just look at the light lifting the academy has preferred to do of late: The King's Speech, The Artist, and now Argo, just one letter away from an inert gas. In a year of passionate favorites and flash-fire controversies, Affleck's film has emerged as the clear consensus winner – the film that rubs the least number of people up the wrong way.

You'll soon know...

We will be posting all of tonight’s Oscar action here in this post – so refresh every so often and you’ll be in the know! Check out all of the nominations below, we will Red Bold the winners. Wait…a new Walking Dead is on? Well this is a predicament. See you tonight?

Best Picture…

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty

Lincoln

Les Miserables

Life of Pi

Amour

Django Unchained

Argo

Best Adapted Screenplay

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Argo

Lincoln

Silver Linings Playbook

Life of Pi

Best Original Screenplay

Flight

Zero Dark Thirty

Django Unchained

Amour

Moonrise Kingdom

Best Director

David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook

Ang Lee, Life of Pi

Steven Spielberg, Lincoln

Michael Haneke, Amour

Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Actor In A Leading Role

Daniel Day Lewis, Lincoln

Denzel Washington, Flight

Hugh Jackman, Les Misérables

Bradley Cooper,...

Sneak Peek a list of all the nominees and video promos supporting the 85th Academy Awards, airing February 24, 2013 on ABC :

And the Nominees are :

Best Picture

"Argo"

"Django Unchained"

"Les Miserables"

"Life of Pi"

"Amour"

"Lincoln"

"Silver Linings Playbook"

"Zero Dark Thirty"

"Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Actor in a Leading Role

Bradley Cooper - "Silver Linings Playbook"

Daniel Day-Lewis - "Lincoln"

Hugh Jackman - "Les Miserables"

Joaquin Phoenix - "The Master"

Denzel Washington - "Flight"

Actress in a Leading Role

Jessica Chastain - "Zero Dark Thirty"

Jennifer Lawrence - "Silver Linings Playbook"

Emmanuelle Riva - "Amour"

Quvenzhané Wallis - "Beasts of Southern Wild"

Naomi Watts - "The Impossible"

Actor in a Supporting Role

Alan Arkin - "Argo"

Robert De Niro - "Silver Linings Playbook"

Philip Seymour Hoffman - "The Master"

Tommy Lee Jones - "Lincoln"

Christoph Waltz - "Django Unchained"

Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams...

Martin Freeman starred in one of the lengthiest movies of 2012, but Friday night he was honored for his work in films with much shorter runtimes and much smaller budgets than the 169-minute-long Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. At the third annual ShortsHD Shorts Awards, Freeman picked up the Visionary Actor Award.

The English actor has continued to make short films, even after performing in high-profile projects like BBC’s Sherlock and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

“I love doing for the same reason that everyone in this room really likes them – because very often it’s the time that...

Contributed by Jim Batts, Tom Stockman, Ken Parker, Melissa Thompson and Michelle McCue

On Oscar Sunday the great and good of the silver screen will assemble at the Dolby Theatre for the 85th Academy Awards. This year’s extravaganza will surely be a night to remember.

With it being the biggest event in movie geekdom, the Wamg crew came up with their own Oscar predictions. Some of the categories there was a consensus on, while others we were divided.

Throughout the awards season, frontrunners jockeyed for position, all hoping to head into Sunday’s ceremony as the favorite to take home gold.

Best motion picture of the year

“Amour” (Sony Pictures Classics) “Argo” (Warner Bros.) Jim, Tom, Ken, Michelle “Beasts of the Southern Wild” (Fox Searchlight) “Django Unchained” (The Weinstein Company) “Les Misérables” (Universal) Melissa “Life of Pi” (20th Century Fox) “Lincoln” (Walt Disney/20th Century Fox) “Silver Linings Playbook...

Are you sick of those ordinary Oscar office pools? Tired of only guessing the top 6 or 8 categories for the Academy Awards? Let your inner-movie geek shine with Bowl the Perfect Oscar Score (aka Oscar Bowling), created by Jeff Bayer.

Try to nail 300 points on the 2013 Academy Awards.

This is a confidence list.

There are 24 categories.

How to play

Pick your winners in all 24 categories. Then, give each winner a confidence score. Your most confident pick gets 24 points, second most confident gets 23 points, third most confident gets 22 points, and eventually your least confident pick gets 1 point.

This is perfect for Oscar parties, because the lead keeps changing. The winner is the one with the most points at the end. A perfect score is 300. If there is a tie (there never is a tie), then the winner is the one with the most points in these three categories combined (Best Picture, Best Actor,...

Predicting the Oscars? Whew! It.s a tough one this year! Besides, honestly, Anne Hathaway and Daniel Day-Lewis, there.s no clear-cut favorite at the 85th Academy Awards. Even Hathaway and Day-Lewis are on shaky grounds, okay, not that much. They may be surefire but what about for Best Picture, or heck, Best Director with the presumed frontrunner, Ben Affleck, missing from the race?

But, every year, I slaved to give you my honest, heartfelt Oscar predictions, which should help you with your Oscar pool.I hope. If you win anything, just give me an Oscar buck!

So here you go, my complete 2013 Oscar predictions for all categories:

Here's the video of the top categories, for the complete predictions, keep on reading :happy

Best Picture

"Amour"

*** "Argo"

"Beasts Of The Southern Wild"

"Django Unchained"

"Les Miserables"

"Life Of Pi"

"Lincoln"

"Silver Linings Playbook"

"Zero Dark Thirty"

Will Win: .Argo. . Why?...

Are you sick of those ordinary Oscar office pools? Tired of only guessing the top 6 or 8 categories for the Academy Awards? Let your inner-movie geek shine with Bowl the Perfect Oscar Score (aka Oscar Bowling), created by Jeff Bayer.

Try to nail 300 points on the 2013 Academy Awards.

This is a confidence list.

There are 24 categories.

How to play

Pick your winners in all 24 categories. Then, give each winner a confidence score. Your most confident pick gets 24 points, second most confident gets 23 points, third most confident gets 22 points, and eventually your least confident pick gets 1 point.

This is perfect for Oscar parties, because the lead keeps changing. The winner is the one with the most points at the end. A perfect score is 300. If there is a tie (there never is a tie), then the winner is the one with the most points in these three categories combined (Best Picture, Best Actor,...

Fawad Mohammadi and Jawanmard Paiz did not want to miss their chance to attend The Academy Awards on Sunday, but their trip to Hollywood all the way from Kabul, Afghanistan didn’t look promising because of the high costs.

After lots of hard work and fundraising, the 14-year-olds who star in “Buzkashi Boys” –- nominated for best live action short film -- embarked on their first journey out of the country on Tuesday and touched down in Los Angeles.

“Buzkashi Boys” is about two impoverished kids who grow up wanting to play buzkashi, Afghanistan's national sport that’s similar to polo.

News Sky reports the film’s producers organized a campaign to earn enough money to fly the boys out to the U.S. because they couldn’t afford to do so on their own. They were able to raise nearly $12,000 from 237 different people in 13 countries.

The trip doesn’t end at the Oscars.

Are you sick of those ordinary Oscar office pools? Tired of only guessing the top 6 or 8 categories for the Academy Awards? Let your inner-movie geek shine with Bowl the Perfect Oscar Score (aka Oscar Bowling).

Try to nail 300 points on the 2013 Academy Awards.

This is a confidence list.

There are 24 categories.

How to play

Pick your winners in all 24 categories. Then, give each winner a confidence score. Your most confident pick gets 24 points, second most confident gets 23 points, third most confident gets 22 points, and eventually your least confident pick gets 1 point.

This is perfect for Oscar parties, because the lead keeps changing. The winner is the one with the most points at the end. A perfect score is 300. If there is a tie (there never is a tie), then the winner is the one with the most points in these three categories combined (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress).

You...

‘War Witch’ Actress Granted Visa For Oscars Rachel Mwanza, who won best actress prizes in Berlin and Tribeca last year for her lead performance in War Witch, has been granted a visa to travel from Congo to North America in order to attend the Oscars on Sunday and other awards shows. War Witch is nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Mwanza was a non-pro when she was discovered living on the streets of Kinshasa and was cast in the movie about a 12-year-old girl who is kidnapped by African rebels, forced to kill her parents at gunpoint and then fight as a child soldier against the government. According to Tribeca Film, which acquired War Witch for North America, the filmmakers continue to provide her with a caregiver and oversee her education. The film is directed by Kim Nguyen is also nominated as Best International Film at Saturday’s Independent Spirit Awards,...

©A.M.P.A.S.

On Tuesday, The Academy hosted a reception featuring the 10 Oscar-nominated films in the Animated and Live-Action Short Film categories. The program showed all the nominated films in these categories.

Hosted by actor Jason Schwartzman, the evening featured the nominated filmmakers of the Animated Short and Live-Action Short categories. For the first time ever this year, all 6,000 voting members of the Academy were sent a DVD of the shorts on which to vote on. One hundred twenty-five pictures had originally qualified in the category.

The nominees for Animated Short Film are:

Adam And Dog

Minkyu Lee

Fresh Guacamole

Pes

Head Over Heels

Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly

Maggie Simpson In “The Longest Daycare”

David Silverman

Paperman

John Kahrs

The nominees for Live Action Short Film are:

Asad

Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura

Buzkashi Boys

Sam French and Ariel Nasr

Curfew

Shawn Christensen

Death Of A Shadow...

Predicting the Oscars? Whew! It.s a tough one this year! Besides, honestly, Anne Hathaway and Daniel Day-Lewis, there.s no clear-cut favorite at the 85th Academy Awards. Even Hathaway and Day-Lewis are on shaky grounds, okay, not that much. They may be surefire but what about for Best Picture, or heck, Best Director with the presumed frontrunner, Ben Affleck, missing from the race?

But, every year, I slaved to give you my honest, heartfelt Oscar predictions, which should help you with your Oscar pool.I hope. If you win anything, just give me an Oscar buck!

So here you go, my complete 2013 Oscar predictions for all categories:

Best Picture

"Amour"

*** "Argo"

"Beasts Of The Southern Wild"

"Django Unchained"

"Les Miserables"

"Life Of Pi"

"Lincoln"

"Silver Linings Playbook"

"Zero Dark Thirty"

Will Win: .Argo. . Why? Because it.s simply the best movie of 2012! Plus, it already won a Producer.s...

Are you sick of those ordinary Oscar office pools? Tired of only guessing the top 6 or 8 categories for the Academy Awards? Let your inner-movie geek shine with Bowl the Perfect Oscar Score (aka Oscar Bowling).

Try to nail 300 points on the 2013 Academy Awards.

This is a confidence list.

There are 24 categories.

How to play

Pick your winners in all 24 categories. Then, give each winner a confidence score. Your most confident pick gets 24 points, second most confident gets 23 points, third most confident gets 22 points, and eventually your least confident pick gets 1 point.

This is perfect for Oscar parties, because the lead keeps changing. The winner is the one with the most points at the end. A perfect score is 300. If there is a tie (there never is a tie), then the winner is the one with the most points in these three categories combined (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress).

You...

Indiewire will provide regular updates of our predictions for the 85th Academy Awards through February 24th, when the winners are announced. The short film races are always extremely tough to call -- especially now that the entire Academy membership is eligible to vote for them. Though it definitely seems like the general consensus with regard to the live action category is that Shawn Christensen's "Curfew" is deservedly the film to beat here. Nominees and predictions below. Check out all predictions in all the categories here, and this list of all the Oscar-nominated films available On Demand right now.   The nominees: "Asad" "Buzkashi Boys" "Curfew" "Death of a Shadow" "Henry" Will win: "Curfew" Could win: "Death of a Shadow" Should win: "Curfew" Check out all predictions in all the categories here. ...

Story of two lads from different backgrounds bonding over love of ancient and bloody sport nominated for Academy Award

When a horrified relative saw Jawanmard Paiz begging on the streets of Kabul, dressed in rags and waving an incense burner over cars in return for small change, he came rushing to ask what disaster had befallen the boy's family.

Paiz was born into Kabul's small but growing middle class: his father and uncle are well-known actors and his brothers have followed them into cinema. At 11, the baby of the family was supposed to be at school, not scrabbling for money.

He was, however, thrilled by the question – it proved that his performance was convincing. He was deep in character for a film now nominated for an Oscar, the first time any work shot in Afghanistan has come this close to Hollywood's highest honour.

Buzkashi Boys is the story of two children from different backgrounds,...

While the Oscar-nominated animated shorts take a little time to pick up some momentum, most of these live-action nominees find a way to grab you immediately by introducing a mystery of some kind.  One begins with a suicide attempt, another starts with a kidnapping, one features a man with a mysterious camera that can record shadows, and another opens with the striking image of children casually carrying around Ak-47s.  More than animated films, live-action short movies can provide a notice to audiences and studios that these are talented filmmakers worth putting on your radar. Hit the jump for my reviews of the 2012 Oscar-nominated live-action short films: Henry, Asad, Death of a Shadow, Curfew, and Buzkashi Boys. Henry The movie begins with a clever opening where we see the eponymous protagonist kidnapped by shadowy figures, but then drifting between time and space.  One moment, he's in a strange facility, and...

Vol. 1 Issue 9

This is a year where all of the live action short films are very good but none are great. It is ok not to be great. That’s a high bar. The films are all very well made and include three American directors, one from an American film school (USC), one with an actor directing himself and lots of stuff we’ve seen before. Two of the films deal with refugees in the third world, Somali and Afghanistan, one deals with old age dementia, one with death and unrequited love and one with a troubled (suicidal) young man. The plots, except in one case, are predictable. All of the films should briefly get their filmmakers attention from agents and managers always hot for young or at least undiscovered talent. The Academy has done its job and with more entries than ever, it wasn’t easy. Some fine films didn’t make it.

The most imaginative work is Death of a Shadow. It is set in a place where a man is working to earn back his life by taking pictures of death. It is stunningly produced and well cast with Matthias Schoenaarts, one of the hotter Euro actors of the moment. The two films set in the Third World deal with young people who have nothing or almost nothing in terms of worldly goods. Both are in apprenticeships and both are in careers they will become dead ends. In Buzhashi Boys the young character is training to be a blacksmith as his country is about to enter the 21st Century and in Asad, the young man is being trained as a fisherman in a country that will likely stay in the 19th Century for some time but once peace comes, will also likely be unemployed. While this is clearly coincidental, both films present pretty bleak pictures of the future.

The self-directed performance in Curfew is really well done. The filmmaker successfully casts himself opposite a young actress who does steal the show, but he gets the last laugh. He is really good. Henry, while predictable, is stunning. It deals with memories and should appeal to many Academy members as the film shifts its scenes like cards being shuffled. Like all of the films Henry is also beautifully produced.

This is the first year where All Academy members will be able to vote on the short films. All members received DVD screeners of the films. My only complaint with the Academy DVDs is that the films look very video, at least on my monitor, while the Dcp versions looked far more cinematic at the Academy screenings. Prior to this year, since the early 1970s, voters were required to see the films projected at special Academy screenings. The rules were changed in the 1970s to require members to screen the films before voting since advertising seemed to influence the outcome in this category over members seeing the films. None of the live action films have serious PR money behind them so the playing field should be even. (In Animation studios are behind a number of the films.) So may the best film win.

Asad, Bryan Buckley, director, and Mino Jarjoura, producer

Asad is set in a war-torn fishing village in Somalia, an all-Somali refugee cast stars in this coming-of-age fable of a Somali boy who is faced with falling into the pirate life, or rising above to choose the path of an honest fishing man. Directed by Bryan Buckley, who has been working as a television commercial director most of his career, this short film should help establish him in the theatrical feature world. Later this year, Buckley will direct his first feature film, the comedy Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus for Lionsgate Summit, starring Reese Witherspoon, adapted from Dr. John Gray’s classic guide to relationships.

Asad is well done. It is slick, solidly produced and directed. The production is feature-film like, big, well cast and nicely shot. The large cast, lots of background and many locations give this work a nice patina. The actors are non-professionals and they give solid performances. The film is moving, at times terrifying. This is a thoughtful work that gets to our hearts.

Trailer: http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi2136908569/

Length: 17 min.

Language:Somali with English subtitles.

Country:USA

Buzkashi Boys, Sam French, director, and Ariel Nasr, producer Fawad Mohammadi with director Sam French

Buzhashi Boys is set against contemporary Afghanistan and is about two best friends, a charismatic street child and a blacksmith's son, who are struggling to realize their dreams in one of the most war-torn countries on Earth. Shot on location in Kabul by an alliance of Afghan and international filmmakers, Buzkashi Boys was produced through the Afghan Film Project, a non-profit foundation formed to tell Afghan stories while building the capacity of Afghanistan's fledgling film industry.

The film has the slick look of a commercial, which is not a surprise since the filmmaker is a top commercial director. The camera glides, the shots are well lit and the film fits together like a Rubric cube. Buzhashi Boys is fine start for someone who is a recent USC Cinema school graduate and has not been making films for lon. The film has solid production values including a massive game of Buzkashi or “dragging the goat,” in Farsi, which involves carrying a goat’s carcass in a polo like game which makes bull fighting look animal friendly. The film was written by Martin Roe who also went to USC.

Length: 30 min.

Language: Pashto

Country: Afghanistan, USA Production

Curfew, Shawn Christensen, director, writer and producer

A suicidal New Yorker, Richie’s attempt to end his life is interrupted by a call from his estranged sister asking him to babysit his niece for the evening.

Curfew starts with a bang and is both inventive and smart. Shawn Christensen’s directing debut is the film to beat. Curfew is about Richie, a young man who gets a phone call from his estranged sister, asking him to look after his niece for a few hours. The phone call comes moments before he is about to kill himself. His sister is no less a treat to deal with. Estranged from her husband it is clear that her life is also on the rocks.

The film has New York energy. It is sharp and original with a taut narrative arc that grabs us and continues for its entire length, from scenes in a rock and roll bowling alley to a visit to his former home where we think he is going to score some dope but he ends up with some flip books.

The film has a non-predictable ending which in this group of films is rare. It is really well done and the production is not out of control. The young girl actress is stellar. Just enough attitude so we want Richie to abandon her but enough cuteness for us to want him to keep her safe. This is a year where calling the winner is pointless in print, even if you have a one in five chance of being right it is a race that could go any number of ways.

Length: 20 min.

Language: English

Country:USA

Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw),Tom Van Avermaet, director, and Ellen De Waele, producer

This highly produced sci-fi fantasy work is about a dead Wwi soldier stuck in the limbo between life and death who has to collect shadows to regain a second chance at life.

Death of a Shadow, a Belgian-French co-production starring Franco-cinema’s star Matthias Schoenaarts, falls into that uncomfortable (for me) Twilight Zone-type film category. In a Twilight Zone-type film characters can walk on water, not follow narrative rules and have a surprise ending that is unpredictable because we’re not on this earth but in a parallel universe. I am not a fan of this style narrative because there are no rules. It is designed to surprise us and after several decades of watching them I have given up. While I don’t mind surprises I am troubled by characters that don’t live in our world. Perhaps I am jealous, because I require the characters in my films to be real?

This fantasy film is about a soldier whose job it is to capture the moment of death on a camera that registers shadows. The images are stored in a collection by the odd photography patron who may or may not be the devil. But who knows? Anything goes, and it does. Our character falls in love a woman called Sarah as he is about to be shot in what appears to a scene from a World War One film. My response on first viewing was to turn it off. I have since had the opportunity to see it a few times and, while I have not warmed up to it, I admit that it looks great. It has some solid special effects, nice production values and feels like a mash up of Martin Scorsese’s last film Hugo (in terms of the effects) and any number of other mechanical effect movies

Length: 20 min.

Language: German

Country: Belgium

Henry, Yan England, director Gérard Poirier as Henry Marie Tifo as Nathalie

The Canadian French-language short Henry captures the confusion and terror of Alzheimer's disease by looking at the 84-year-old character (Henry’s) struggle as his world moves between memories. Played with authenticity by Gérard Poirier, this is a deeply moving work that shows the effects of Alzheimer’s when it is evident that Henry does not recognize his wife, played effectively by Marie Tifo.

In some ways it feels like the best picture nominee Amour. The production, like all of the films in this category, is stunningly mounted. Yan England does a fine job directing this work and, if Academy voters behave as they sometimes do with this kind of material, England might go home with the Oscar.

Trailer: http://oscar.go.com/nominees/short-film-live-action/henry

Length: 21 min.

Language: English

Country: Canadian

________________________________________________________________________

Credits: Editing by Jessica Just for SydneysBuzz

________________________________________________________________________

Mitchell Block specializes in conceiving, producing, marketing & distributing independent features & consulting. He is an expert in placing both completed works into distribution & working with producers to make projects fundable. He conducts regular workshops in film producing in Los Angeles and most recently in Maine, Russia and in Myanmar (Burma).

Poster Girl, produced by Block was nominated for a Documentary Academy Award and selected by the Ida as the Best Doc Short 2011. It was also nominated for two Emmy Awards and aired on HBO. He is an executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Carrier, a 10-hour series that he conceived & co-created. Block is a graduate of Tisch School and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He is a member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Television Academy, a founding member of BAFTA-la and has been teaching at USC School of Cinematic Arts since 1979. Currently Block teaches a required class in the USC Peter Stark Producing Program.

______________________________________________________________________

©2013Mwb All Rights Reserved All Rights Reserved. All information and designs on the Sites are copyrighted material owned by Block. Reproduction, dissemination, or transmission of any part of the material here without the express written consent of the owner is strictly prohibited.All other product names and marks on Block Direct, whether trademarks, service marks, or other type, and whether registered or unregistered, is the property of Block.

Spend some time watching the films nominated for the Oscars’ live action short award, and you’ll find yourself taking a round-the-world tour from Afghanistan to Canada to France to Somalia to New York.

With stories from all corners of the globe, this varied collection of shorts touches on issues of poverty, of aging, and of the choices people are faced with when given great power.

As you get ready to fill out your personal Oscar ballot, here’s a look at the chilling, bittersweet, heart-warming films in the race for the live action short award this year. The winner,...

Sneak Peek a new official poster by artist Olly Moss, highlighting the 85th Academy Awards, airing February 24, 2013 :

And the Nominees are :

Best Picture

"Argo"

"Django Unchained"

"Les Miserables"

"Life of Pi"

"Amour"

"Lincoln"

"Silver Linings Playbook"

"Zero Dark Thirty"

"Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Actor in a Leading Role

Bradley Cooper - "Silver Linings Playbook"

Daniel Day-Lewis - "Lincoln"

Hugh Jackman - "Les Miserables"

Joaquin Phoenix - "The Master"

Denzel Washington - "Flight"

Actress in a Leading Role

Jessica Chastain - "Zero Dark Thirty"

Jennifer Lawrence - "Silver Linings Playbook"

Emmanuelle Riva - "Amour"

Quvenzhané Wallis - "Beasts of Southern Wild"

Naomi Watts - "The Impossible"

Actor in a Supporting Role

Alan Arkin - "Argo"

Robert De Niro - "Silver Linings Playbook"

Philip Seymour Hoffman - "The Master"

Tommy Lee Jones - "Lincoln"

Christoph Waltz - "Django Unchained"

Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams - "The Master...

Kabul, Afghanistan -- Fawad Mohammadi has spent half his life peddling maps and dictionaries to foreigners on a street of trinket shops in Kabul. Now the 14-year-old Afghan boy with bright green eyes is getting ready for a trip down the red carpet at the Oscars.

It will also be his first time out of the country and his first time on a plane.

Mohammadi was plucked from the dingy streets of the Afghan capital to be one of the main stars of "Buzkashi Boys," a coming-of-age movie filmed entirely in a war zone and nominated in the Best Live Action Short Film category.

The movie is about two penniless young boys – a street urchin and a blacksmith's son – who are best friends and dream of becoming professional players of buzkashi, a particularly rough and dangerous game that somewhat resembles polo: Horseback riders wrangle to get a headless goat carcass...

Chicago – Want a leg-up in your Oscar pool? The five short films nominated for the Academy Award for “Best Live-Action Short” are now playing at the Landmark Century Theatre in a special presentation. The program runs 114 minutes and we have mini-reviews of all five below, ranked in the order we’d like to see them win the Oscar.

Death of a Shadow

Photo credit: Shorts International

“Death of a Shadow”

Matthias Schoenaerts (“Bullhead,” “Rust & Bone”) plays an afterlife photographer. He is imprisoned in his own shadow and given a deal by a Grim Reaper-esque character that if he can capture 10,000 souls by photographing them at the instant of their death than he will be returned to the real world and to his love Sarah. Easily the most inventive and unexpected of all ten of the nominated fictional shorts (live-action and animated), “Shadow” is a beautiful meditation on sacrifice, loss, and the impossible.

Meet Fawad Mohammadi, he's a street kid from Kabul, Afghanistan who starred in a short fiction narrative called "Buzkashi Boys" from director Sam French. That movie is nominated in the Oscars live action short category but here's the problem -- he needs a few dollars more to attend the Academy Awards on February 24. Mohammadi was discovered for his role while selling tourists maps on the streets of Kabul.

He has ever left his hometown.

If you have it in your heart to donate a couple of dollars, you can go to the rally page here: https://rally.org/buzkashiboys

Hopefully, we'll see him at the Oscars!

Efforts to raise money to bring the young star of the Oscar®-nominated live action short Buzkashi Boys from the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan to Hollywood for the Big Event are well on their way to a goal of $10,000. After just two days, $6,845, one or two dollars at a time, has been donated through an Internet campaign on the website www.rally.org/buzkashiboys. Fourteen-year-old Fawad Mohammadi hopes to make it to the Academy Awards® ceremony on February 24. He is excited at the chance to meet Hollywood’s stars and filmmakers. Fawad was discovered while selling maps and chewing gum on Chicken Street, Kabul’s main shopping district. His father died when he was young and to help his mother he gave up on school and started working at the age of seven. The filmmakers also hope to bring Fawad’s 14-year-old co-star Jawanmard Paiz to Los Angeles through these donations.

The teenage stars of two Oscar-nominated movies would love to come to Hollywood for the Academy Awards, but financial and diplomatic hurdles stand in the way of the young actors from the nominated live-action shorts "Asad" and "Buzkashi Boys." To overcome those obstacles, the filmmakers behind both shorts have launched campaigns to raise money and to pressure governments into allowing the boys to go from the streets of Kabul and Cape Town to the red carpet at Hollywood & Highland. Both films were shot overseas using non-professional talent. In the case of...

Sneak Peek the first Official 2013 Academy Awards poster promoting the live broadcast of the 85th 'Oscars', airing February 24, 2013:

And the Nominees are :

Best Picture

"Argo"

"Django Unchained"

"Les Miserables"

"Life of Pi"

"Amour"

"Lincoln"

"Silver Linings Playbook"

"Zero Dark Thirty"

"Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Actor in a Leading Role

Bradley Cooper - "Silver Linings Playbook"

Daniel Day-Lewis - "Lincoln"

Hugh Jackman - "Les Miserables"

Joaquin Phoenix - "The Master"

Denzel Washington - "Flight"

Actress in a Leading Role

Jessica Chastain - "Zero Dark Thirty"

Jennifer Lawrence - "Silver Linings Playbook"

Emmanuelle Riva - "Amour"

Quvenzhané Wallis - "Beasts of Southern Wild"

Naomi Watts - "The Impossible"

Actor in a Supporting Role

Alan Arkin - "Argo"

Robert De Niro - "Silver Linings Playbook"

Philip Seymour Hoffman - "The Master"

Tommy Lee Jones - "Lincoln"

Christoph Waltz - "Django Unchained"

Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams - "The Master...

Vol. I Issue 6

Send us links to your sizzle reels and film sites.

Note: See Issues 1, 2, 3, and 4 for reviews and clips of the Academy documentary films and short films. Additional reviews of the documentary features follow in this issue.

Best documentary feature

5 Broken Cameras Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi

The Gatekeepers Nominees to be determined *See note below

How to Survive a Plague Nominees to be determined

The Invisible War Nominees to be determined

Searching for Sugar Man Nominees to be determined

Best documentary short subject

Inocente Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine

Kings Point Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider

Mondays at Racine Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan

Open Heart Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern

Redemption Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill

Best animated short film

Adam and Dog Minkyu Lee

Fresh Guacamole Pes

Head over Heels Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly

Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare David Silverman

Paperman John Kahrs

Best live action short film

Asad Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura

Buzkashi Boys Sam French and Ariel Nasr

Curfew Shawn Christensen

Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw) Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele

Henry Yan England

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song) from a documentary

Before My Time from The documentary feature Chasing Ice Music and Lyric by J. Ralph

Note: *Nominees to be determined* The Documentary Brand gives the nomination to the individual(s) most involved in the key creative aspects of the filmmaking process. A maximum of two persons may be designated as nominees, one of whom must be the credited director who exercised directorial control, and the other of whom must have a producer or director credit. If a producer is named, that individual must have performed a major portion of the producing functions, in accordance with Academy producer criteria. No more than two statuettes will normally be given in the Documentary Feature category. All individuals with a “Producer” or “Produced by” credit on films that reach the semifinal round will automatically be vetted.

The Documentary Branch Executive Committee will determine which producers, if any, are eligible to receive an Oscar. In the unlikely event of a dispute, filmmakers may appeal the committee’s decision. In extremely rare circumstances, a third statuette may be awarded.

Production companies or persons with the screen credit of executive producer, co-producer or any credit other than director or producer shall not be eligible as nominees for the motion picture.

DGA Documentary Award Nominations

Kirby Dick The Invisible War

This is Mr. Dick’s first DGA Award nomination.

Malik Bendjelloul Searching For Sugar Man

This is Mr. Bendjelloul’s first DGA Award nomination.

Lauren Greenfield The Queen of Versailles

This is Ms. Greenfield’s first DGA Award nomination.

David France How To Survive A Plague

This is Mr. France’s first DGA Award nomination.

Alison Klayman Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry

This is Ms. Klayman’s first DGA Award nomination.

Two Academy Nominated Documentary Features

& One Academy Short Listed Documentary Reviewed

The Gatekeepers, directed by Dror Moreh

Documentary Feature Nominee

Six former heads of Israel’s domestic secret service agency, the Shin Bet, share their insights and reflect publicly on their actions and decisions in The Gatekeepers, a film by Dror Moreh. These six heads of the Shin Bet stood at the center of Israel's decision-making process in all matters pertaining to security. They worked closely with every Israeli prime minister, and their assessments and insights had—and continue to have—a profound impact on Israeli policy. The Gatekeepers is an exclusive account of their successes and failures.

I find The Gatekeepers remarkable. Not for its craft but for its concept and vision. Imagine

J Edger Hoover talking about his tenure at the FBI, his successes and his failures, his interactions with the Presidents and members of Congress, and his critical self-evaluation of his mission and how his agency’s work affected our nation. Imagine. Dror Moreh accomplished this feat when he convinced these six surviving members of the Shin Bet, to speak on camera.

The film provides a historical perspective of Israel that is both candid and critical of the successive governments in this rare Middle Eastern democracy. The Shin Bet was created in 1949 by David Ben-Gurion’s government to focus on the internal affairs of Israel and evolved into dealing with counterterrorism and intelligence gathering in the West Bank and Gaza.

These intelligence heads, like ours, report to the President/Prime Minister. They are not part of the military complex. It is this context that gives this work its power. We hear the story of Israel’s struggle to protect itself from both its internal and external enemies; the bombers, terrorists, agents and others who worked to destroy this small country. These men are not glamorous or like the fictional heads of the spy agencies we have seen in James Bond and Bourne films. They are bald or balding grandfather-types. Articulate, highly educated, calm and yet we know that they protected Israel from its enemies even if they had them killed.

This is one of the strongest of the nominated docs. It raises significant issues of personal responsibilities. Despite the lack of oversight we don’t feel that this is an organization gone amuck like the Catholic Church not protecting children or the Us Military not protecting its members from sexual harassment. We see these articulate men as guardians and protectors of their nation steadfastly doing their duty within the confines of their moral beliefs. What is scary about The Gatekeepers is that clearly there could have been abuses and wrongs done by the Shin Bet if these six had less character or their mission was redefined by the government without regard to moral or ethical standards. The film on reflection is troubling for regardless of how the spectator might feel about Israel it forces us to look at this conflict through the lenses of these six guardians and we can only wonder what they don’t tell us about what they did in the name of their country.

Credits:

Director: Dror Moreh

Camera: Avner Shahaf

Producers: Dror Moreh, Estelle Fialon, Philippa Kowarsky

Co Producer: Anna Van Der Wee

Sound: Amos Zipori

Sound Design: Aex Claude

Music: Ab Ovo, Jérôme Chassagnard, Régis Baillet

Editor: Oron Adar

Production Companies: Dror Moreh Productions, Les Films du Poisson, Cinephil

In Co-Production with: Mac Guff, Wild Heart Productions, Arte France, Iba, Ndr, Rtbf

With the support of: Cnc, Media, Région Ile-de-France, Procirep, Angoa, The Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts – Cinema Project

Distribution: Sony Classics

Trailer: http://www.sonyclassics.com/thegatekeepers/

The House I Live In, directed by Eugene Jarecki

Short Listed Documentary Feature for Academy Award nomination

The House I Live In looks at how America has waged war on some of its poorest citizens, costing countless lives, destroying families, and inflicting untold damage on future generations of Americans. It posits that over the last forty years, the War on Drugs has accounted for more than 45 million arrests and shows how America became the world’s largest jailer, damaging poor communities at home and abroad. Yet today drugs are cheaper, purer and more available than ever before. It shows that drug abuse is a public health issue. Despite this, it is treated by our society as a criminal matter and a vast machine has been created that feeds on the men and women who are incarcerated. Because of this, the prisoners are not offered help or a cure for their underlying problems, so they return to prison in a never ending cycle.

Eugene Jarecki, whose previous films looked at the military industrial complex (Why We Fight and The Trials of Henry Kissinger), won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance in both 2005 and 2010. The film tackles difficult material. Material that has been in scores of documentaries and television shows over the years. Yet Jarecki, using his personal experience, a wealth of interviews and strong case studies, builds a compelling case for changing the sentencing guidelines for crack (and cocaine) and for dealing with both addiction and the underlying causes of addiction. Jarecki is a skillful filmmaker who has picked a vast and complex subject and has created a work that while rich in content moves along at a good pace although it might have been stronger if it had tried to do less. The film editor Paul Frost and the composer Robert Miller do an excellent job building strong sequences with evocative music. It was nicely shot by Sam Cullman and Derek Hallquist. Richard Abramowitz’s Abramorama handled the distribution and was successful getting the work out which is never easy for such an issue oriented film.

Credits:

Director, Producer, Screenwriter: Eugene Jarecki

Producers: Melinda Shopsin, Sam Cullman, Christopher St. John

Executive Producers: Eugene Jarecki, Nick Fraser, Joslyn Barnes, Danny Glover, Russell Simmons, Roy Ackerman, John Legend, Sally Jo Feifer, Nick Fraser

Camera: Sam Cullman, Derek Hallquist

Sound: Matthew Freed, Art Jaso

Music: Robert Milller

Editor: Paul Frost

Production Companies: Charlotte Street Films, Zdf Enterprises, Independent Television Services, BBC, Aljazeera Documentary Channel, Vpro, Special Broadcasting Service Corporation, Louverture Films, Nhk

Distribution (Us): Abramorama Entertainment, Snag Films

How to Survive a Plague, directed by David France

Documentary Feature Nominee

How to Survive a Plague by writer and filmmaker David France tells the story of how two coalitions came together to lobby for effective treatments and funding for treatments of AIDS in the late 1980s when it was evident that the Us government and its health and other agencies were not being very effective dealing with the AIDS epidemic. The coalitions, Act Up and Tag (Treatment Action Group) helped to make AIDS more treatable. While there is still no cure for AIDS and thousands of people globally still die from the virus, it is now possible to prolong life with treatments that have been developed.

Despite having no scientific training, these self-made activists infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry and helped identify promising new drugs, moving them from experimental trials to patients in record time. With access to never-before-seen archival footage from the 1980s and '90s, filmmaker David France puts the viewer smack in the middle of the controversial actions, the heated meetings, the heartbreaking failures, and the exultant breakthroughs. Faced with their own mortality an improbable group of young men and women, many of them HIV-positive took on Washington and the medical establishment.

While there have been a handful of outstanding films dealing with the AIDS epidemic including Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, The Broadcast Tapes of Dr. Peter and Silverlake Life, to name a few, How to Survive a Plague picks up on the story begun in the landmark Common Threads and updates the struggle, looking at the quest to find a treatment and possibly a cure for this vicious disease. The film weaves together stories of activism and shows how a small determined group can effect change not just nationally but globally. While the film is not as well made as Common Threads or Dr. Peter, it’s powerful. The archival footage manages to capture some of the key figures of Act Up and Tag showing actions as they take place. Instead of relying on talking heads to tell this amazing story, it is presented with footage shot as the story unfolded. This footage and its solid editing distinguishes this film from so many of the works that have tried to tell this story.

Few documentaries have such powerful antagonists, the government, incompetence, a lack of urgency on the part of the medical community and fear. Throw in homophobia and it is evident that the dramatic actions of these heroes saved hundreds of thousands of possible victims from this mostly sexually spread plague.

My only serious criticism of this documentary is its failure to be clearer that the plague continues, that there is no cure for HIV/AIDS and that the community continues to give a false sense of hope. Currently the Cdc states:

” ..estimates that 1,148,200 persons aged 13 years and older are living with HIV infection, including 207,600 (18.1%) who are unaware of their infection1. Over the past decade, the number of people living with HIV has increased, while the annual number of new HIV infections has remained relatively stable. Still, the pace of new infections continues at far too high a level—particularly among certain groups.

HIV Incidence(new infections): The estimated incidence of HIV has remained stable overall in recent years, at about 50,000 new HIV infections per year.2 Within the overall estimates, however, some groups are affected more than others. Msm (men who have sex with men) continue to bear the greatest burden of HIV infection, and among races/ethnicities, African Americans continue to be disproportionately affected.”

This information could have been contained in the last few minutes of this powerful work, to inspire and warn the audience that testing is critical and that safe sex is still the only way to contain AIDS.

The Filmmaker

David France, Director, Producer

David France is an award-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author who has been writing about AIDS since 1982 and today is one of the best-known chroniclers of the epidemic. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek, GQ, and New York magazine, where he is a contributing editor, and has received the National Headliner Award and the GLAAD Media Award, among others. Several films have been inspired by his work, most recently the Emmy-nominated Showtime film Our Fathers, for which he received a WGA nomination. He is at work on a major history of AIDS, due from Alfred A. Knopf in 2013. Based on decades of reporting, How to Survive a Plague is his directorial debut.

Credits

Director: David France

Writers: David France, Todd Woody Richman, Tyler H. Walk

Producers: David France, Howard Gertler

Executive Producers: Dan Cogan, Joy A. Tomchin

Co-Producer: Todd Woody Richman

Camera: Derek Wieshahn

Sound: Stuart Deutsch, Topher Reifeiss

Original Music: Stuart Bogie

Editor: Todd Woody Richman, Tyler H. Walk

Production Companies: Public Square Films, Ninety Thousand Words

Distribution (Us): Sundance Selects

Short Notes and Update:

The International Documentary Association in Los Angeles presents Doc U: The Doc Reporter

Navigating the Intersection of Documentary and Journalism

Moderated by: Karin Skellwagen (The Brooks Institute)

With Panelists:

Sarah Burns (The Central Park Five)

Michael Donaldson (Partner, Donaldson & Callif)

David France (How To Survive A Plague)

For information: http://doc-u-jan-2013-la.eventbrite.com/

Sundance Announces 2013 International Documentary Competition:

Fallen City/ China (Director: Qi Zhao) — Fallen City spans four years to reveal how three families who survived the 2008 Sichuan earthquake to embark on a journey searching for hope, purpose, identity, and to rebuild their lives in a new China torn between tradition and modernity. North American Premiere

Fire in the Blood/ India (Director: Dylan Mohan Gray) — In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Western governments and pharmaceutical companies blocked low-cost antiretroviral drugs from reaching AIDS-stricken Africa, causing 10 million or more unnecessary deaths. An improbable group of people decided to fight back. North American Premiere

Google and the World Brain/ Spain, United Kingdom (Director: Ben Lewis) — In the most ambitious Internet project ever conceived, Google is working to scan every book in the world. Google says it is building a library for mankind. But some are trying to stop it, claiming that Google may have other intentions. World Premiere

The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear/ Georgia, Germany (Director: Tinatin Gurchiani) — A film director casting a 15-23-year-old protagonist visits villages and cities to meet people who answer her call. She follows those who prove to be interesting enough through various dramatic and funny situations. North American Premiere

The Moo Man/ United Kingdom (Directors: Andy Heathcote, Heike Bachelier) — A year in the life of heroic farmer Steve, scene stealing Ida (queen of the herd), and a supporting cast of 55 cows. When Ida falls ill, Steve’s optimism is challenged and their whole way of life is at stake. World Premiere

Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer/ Russian Federation, United Kingdom (Directors: Mike Lerner, Maxim Pozdorovkin) — Three young women face seven years in a Russian prison for a satirical performance in a Moscow cathedral. But who is really on trial: the three young artists or the society they live in? World Premiere

A River Changes Course/ Cambodia, U.S.A. (Director: Kalyanee Mam) — Three young Cambodians struggle to overcome the crushing effects of deforestation, overfishing, and overwhelming debt in this devastatingly beautiful story of a country reeling from the tragedies of war and rushing to keep pace with a rapidly expanding world. World Premiere

Salma/ United Kingdom, India (Director: Kim Longinotto) — When Salma, a young girl in South India, reached puberty, her parents locked her away. Millions of girls all over the world share the same fate. Twenty-five years later, Salma has fought her way back to the outside world. World Premiere

The Square (Al Midan)/ Egypt, U.S.A. (Director: Jehane Noujaim) — What does it mean to risk your life for your ideals? How far will five revolutionaries go in defending their beliefs in the fight for their nation? World Premiere

The Stuart Hall Project/ United Kingdom (Director: John Akomfrah) — Antinuclear campaigner, New Left activist and founding father of Cultural Studies, this documentary interweaves 70 years of Stuart Hall’s film, radio and television appearances, and material from his private archive to document a memorable life and construct a portrait of Britain’s foremost radical intellectual. World Premiere

The Summit/ Ireland, United Kingdom (Director: Nick Ryan) — Twenty-four climbers converged at the last stop before summiting the most dangerous mountain on Earth. Forty-eight hours later, 11 had been killed or simply vanished. Had one, Ger McDonnell, stuck to the climbers' code, he might still be alive. International Premiere

Who is Dayani Cristal?/ United Kingdom (Director: Marc Silver) — An anonymous body in the Arizona desert sparks the beginning of a real-life human drama. The search for its identity leads us across a continent to seek out the people left behind and the meaning of a mysterious tattoo. World Premiere. Day One Film

Producer’s Guild Announces Nominations for the Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures and Non-Fiction Television:

A People Uncounted(Urbinder Films)

Producers: Marc Swenker, Aaron Yeger

The Gatekeepers(Sony Pictures Classics)

Producers: Estelle Fialon, Philippa Kowarsky, Dror Moreh

The Island President(Samuel Goldwyn Films)

Producers: Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen

The Other Dream Team(The Film Arcade)

Producers: Marius Markevicius, Jon Weinbach

Searching For Sugar Man(Sony Pictures Classics)

Producers: Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn

Nominations for the Award for Outstanding Producer of

Non-Fiction Television:

American Masters(PBS)

Producers: Prudence Glass, Susan Lacy, Julie Sacks

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations(Travel Channel)

Producers: Anthony Bourdain, Christopher Collins, Lydia Tenaglia, Sandy Zweig

Deadliest Catch(Discovery Channel)

Producers: Thom Beers, Jeff Conroy, Sean Dash, John Gray, Sheila McCormack, Bill Pruitt, Decker Watson

Inside the Actors Studio(Bravo)

Producers: James Lipton, Shawn Tesser, Jeff Wurtz

Shark Tank(ABC)

Producers: Rhett Bachner, Becky Blitz, Mark Burnett, Bill Gaudsmith, Yun Lingner, Brien Meagher, Clay Newbill, Jim Roush, Laura Skowlund, Paul Sutera, Patrick Wood

BAFTA Short and Documentary Feature Nominations (British Academy of Film and Television Arts, London)

Documentary Feature

The ImposterBart Layton, Dimitri Doganis

Marley Kevin Macdonald, Steve Bing, Charles Steel

McCullin David Morris, Jacqui Morris

Searching for Sugar Man Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn

West of Memphis Amy Berg

Short Animation

Here to Fall Kris Kelly, Evelyn McGrath

I’m Fine Thanks Eamonn O'Neill

The Making of Longbird Will Anderson, Ainslie Henderson

Short Film

The Curse Fyzal Boulifa, Gavin Humphries

Good Night Muriel d'Ansembourg, Eva Sigurdardottir

Swimmer Lynne Ramsay, Peter Carlton, Diarmid Scrimshaw

Tumult Johnny Barrington, Rhianna Andrews

The Voorman Problem Mark Gill, Baldwin Li

The Broadcast Film Critics Association (Bfca)

Documentary Feature Nominations

Bully

The Imposter

Queen of Versailles

Searching for Sugar Man (Winner)

The Central Park Five

West of Memphis

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Credits: Editing by Jessica Just for SydneysBuzz

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Block Doc Workshops in Los Angeles February 2013 Ida Doc U

The International Documentary Association will be hosting Documentary Funding and Documentary Tune-Up Workshops with Block on February 9/10. http://www.documentary.org/news/february-documentary-producing-workshops-mitchell-block

Mitchell Block specializes in conceiving, producing, marketing & distributing independent features & consulting. He is an expert in placing both completed works into distribution & working with producers to make projects fundable. He conducts regular workshops in film producing in Los Angeles and most recently in Maine, Russia and in Myanmar (Burma).

Poster Girl, produced by Block was nominated for a Documentary Academy Award and selected by the Ida as the Best Doc Short 2011. It was also nominated for two Emmy Awards and aired on HBO. He is an executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Carrier, a 10-hour series that he conceived & co-created. Block is a graduate of Tisch School and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He is a member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Television Academy, a founding member of BAFTA-la and has been teaching at USC School of Cinematic Arts since 1979. Currently Block teaches a required class in the USC Peter Stark Producing Program.

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©2013Mwb All Rights Reserved All Rights Reserved. All information and designs on the Sites are copyrighted material owned by Block. Reproduction, dissemination, or transmission of any part of the material here without the express written consent of the owner is strictly prohibited.All other product names and marks on Block Direct, whether trademarks, service marks, or other type, and whether registered or unregistered, is the property of Block.

Paperman

ShortsHD™ The Short Movie Channel (www.shorts.tv), working with Magnolia Pictures, will release The Oscar® Nominated Short Films 2013 in over 260 theatres across the United States, Canada and Europe on February 1, 2013. This is the 8th year of the Oscar Nominated Short Film Theatrical Release. The announcement comes on the heels of last year’s record-breaking release, which was one of the top 50 grossing independent film releases in North America, earning over $1,700,000 nationwide. Since its debut in 2005, the Oscar® Nominated Short Films theatrical release program has grown 800%.

A key fixture of the awards season, the theatrical release featuring Live Action, Animation and Documentary short films is the only opportunity for audiences around the country to watch the nominated shorts prior to the 85th Academy Awards® ceremony on February 24, 2013.

This year’s release breaks new ground: a past Oscar winner in that category will host each film. Hosting the Live Action...

ShortsHD The Short Movie Channel (Shorts.tv), working with Magnolia Pictures, will release The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2013 in over 260 theaters across the United States, Canada and Europe on February 1, 2013. This is the 8th year of the Oscar Nominated Short Film Theatrical Release. The announcement comes on the heels of last year's record-breaking release, which was one of the top 50 grossing independent film releases in North America, earning over $1,700,000 nationwide. Since its debut in 2005, the Oscar Nominated Short Films theatrical release program has grown 800%.

A key fixture of the awards season, the theatrical release featuring Live Action, Animation and Documentary short films is the only opportunity for audiences around the country to watch the nominated shorts prior to the 85th Annual Academy Awards ceremony on February 24, 2013.

This year's release breaks new ground: a past Oscar winner in that category will host each film. Hosting the Live Action program will be director Luke Matheny,...

Stop what you're doing, and brace your heartstrings—they're in for quite a pulling. Because while most Oscar nominees are rather predictable in their gratitude (yes, we know you'd like to thank the Academy and all the little people), 14-year-old Fawad Mohammadi is something else entirely. Heartwarming, for one. Infectiously ecstatic, for another. Going from the streets of Kabul to the red carpets of Hollywood, for another. In footage that has understandably been making the viral rounds online, Mohammadi, an Afghan teenager who sells gum and tourist maps from a Kabul curbside and who also acted in Oscar-nominated Buzkashi Boys, is seen reacting to the film's nod for Best Live Action...

Sneak Peek the televised Oscar 2013 Nominees announcement, broadcast live from Los Angeles, January 10, 2013, as well as a series of promos featuring host Seth MacFarlane.

And the Nominees are :

Best Picture

"Argo"

"Django Unchained"

"Les Miserables"

"Life of Pi"

"Amour"

"Lincoln"

"Silver Linings Playbook"

"Zero Dark Thirty"

"Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Actor in a Leading Role

Bradley Cooper - "Silver Linings Playbook"

Daniel Day-Lewis - "Lincoln"

Hugh Jackman - "Les Miserables"

Joaquin Phoenix - "The Master"

Denzel Washington - "Flight"

Actress in a Leading Role

Jessica Chastain - "Zero Dark Thirty"

Jennifer Lawrence - "Silver Linings Playbook"

Emmanuelle Riva - "Amour"

Quvenzhané Wallis - "Beasts of Southern Wild"

Naomi Watts - "The Impossible"

Actor in a Supporting Role

Alan Arkin - "Argo"

Robert De Niro - "Silver Linings Playbook"

Philip Seymour Hoffman - "The Master"

Tommy Lee Jones - "Lincoln"

Christoph Waltz - "Django Unchained"

Actress in a Supporting...

After a couple months of various organizations and associations sharing their favorites of the year, (look for our own Jeff Bayer at the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards tonight), the big kahuna has spoken – Oscar nominations are in.

Here are the nominees for the 85th annual Academy Awards, with the ceremony taking place on February 24, which will be hosted by Seth MacFarlane.

Best Picture

Nominees:

Amour (2012): To Be Determined

Argo (2012): Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, George Clooney

Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012): Dan Janvey, Josh Penn, Michael Gottwald

Django Unchained (2012): Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin, Pilar Savone

Les Misérables (2012): Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh

Life of Pi (2012): Gil Netter, Ang Lee, David Womark

Lincoln (2012): Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy

Silver Linings Playbook (2012): Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen, Jonathan Gordon

Zero Dark Thirty (2012): Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow, Megan Ellison

Best Performance by an Actor...