News

The last time much of Hollywood heard from Sydney Holland, she was in the midst of an acrimonious split from nonagenarian media mogul and chairman emeritus of CBS and Viacom Sumner Redstone. But Holland would rather be known for something more impactful — producing films that raise awareness of real problems affecting people much less fortunate. Through her Rich Hippie Productions, Holland recently served as an executive producer on the documentary “The Seventh Fire,” which follows a grizzled Native American gangster, Rob Brown, and his young protégé, Kevin, as they navigate a minefield of addiction and crime on Minnesota’s White Earth.

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Complete Unknown (Joshua Marston)

Armed with two top-notch leads and a compelling premise, Joshua Marston‘s third feature, Complete Unknown, spends a lot of time hinting at which direction it will go, without going anywhere at all. Tom (Michael Shannon) is living with his wife Rehema (Azita Ghanizada) in New York City, spending the majority of his days drafting agricultural policy emails in a cramped government office. It is...

★★★★☆ "About one in ten every ten years makes it out of here," says a father exasperated by an errant, drug-peddling son. The outlook for young members of the White Earth Indian Reservation is crushingly bleak. From the outset of The Seventh Fire, the first feature length documentary from Jack Pettibone Riccobono, it's bracingly candid in both tone and image. The New York-based filmmaker roams across wasteland, into and out of run-down homes and sits in cars as the inhabitants of Pine Point lay bare a debilitating cycle of criminality, unemployment, substance abuse and the pursuant loss of their aboriginal culture.

Two troubled Native American men take stock of their mistakes as they face jail time in this flawed but intriguing documentary produced by Terrence Malick

At the White Earth reservation in Minnesota, two Native American men at different points in their lives face down jail time and take stock of the mistakes they’ve made. The older man, a charismatic drug dealer named Rob Brown, is about to go to jail for a 57-month stretch, and prepares mentally for it by partying fiercely, taking leave of his pregnant girlfriend and dispensing some advice to his teenage protege, Kevin Fineday, who’s clearly on the same self-destructive path. This documentary, by the first-time director Jack Pettibone Riccobono, is a deep drink of bleak. But there are incidental moments of beauty or startling surreality to marvel at, such as the rippling magic-hour reflection of a silo in a pool of water, or...

Rough and tumble do we enter into The Seventh Fire, a documentary that examines the lives of Native Americans on the White Earth Reservation, located in a drug-addled corner of Minnesota. As directed by Jack Pettibone Riccobono, the focus is on gang leader Rob Brown and a 17-year old named Kevin, his protege-of-sorts.

Brown, in and out of jail his whole life, prepares to go back in for fifth time. For him and many in his brood, drugs are the central problem, along with circumstance. Nowhere else in the documentary does this ring louder than a moment where Brown, with his parole officer, reads through his police record, revealing the slew of foster homes and abuse he’s suffered over the years.

Riccobono makes clear that Brown is what Kevin can so easily become and even wants to become to a degree. The film is decidedly set to examine these...

The Academy is now accepting entries for its 2015 Student Academy Awards competition. All Student Academy Award® winners become eligible for Oscars consideration. The 42nd Student Academy Awards presentation will be held on Friday, September 18, at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Beginning this year, students are able to submit their films online using FilmFreeway, a widely used festival and competition platform. Also new this year, the entry deadline has moved to June 1, and the awards ceremony date has been changed from June to September to better align the competition with the academic calendar. Complete rules and a link to the online submission platform are available at www.oscars.org/saa. Past winners have gone on to receive 47 Oscar nominations and have won or shared eight awards. Two previous Student Academy Award winners received 2014 Oscar nominations: J. Christian Jensen, a 2014 Silver Medal winner, received a nomination for Documentary Short Subject for “White Earth,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the launch of the 42nd Student Academy Awards, a competition designed to spotlight emerging filmmakers. Winners in the five Student Academy Awards categories—Alternative, Animation, Narrative, Documentary, and Foreign Film—become eligible for Oscar consideration. Past winners have gone on to receive 47 Oscar nominations, including eight awards. Among them are 2014 Oscar nominees J. Christian Jensen, for Documentary Short Subject ("White Earth"), and Talkhon Hamzavi, co-nominated with Stefan Eichenberger for Live Action Short ("Parvaneh"), as well as filmmakers Pete Docter, John Lasseter, Spike Lee, Trey Parker, and Robert Zemeckis. U.S. competition is open to all full-time undergraduate and graduate students whose films are made within the curricular structure of an eligible accredited institution. In the Foreign Film category, eligible schools are allowed to submit one film to the competition. For...

©A.M.P.A.S. / 41st Student Academy Awards

The Academy is now accepting entries for its 2015 Student Academy Awards competition. All Student Academy Award winners become eligible for Oscars consideration.

The 42nd Student Academy Awards presentation will be held on Friday, September 18, at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

Beginning this year, students are able to submit their films online using FilmFreeway, a widely used festival and competition platform.

Also new this year, the entry deadline has moved to June 1, and the awards ceremony date has been changed from June to September to better align the competition with the academic calendar.

Complete rules and a link to the online submission platform are available at www.oscars.org/saa.

Past winners have gone on to receive 47 Oscar nominations and have won or shared eight awards. Two previous Student Academy Award winners received 2014 Oscar nominations: J. Christian Jensen,...

Take another look @ the complete 'Oscar' nominations list for the 87th Annual Academy Awards, to be presented February 22, 2015 :

Best Picture

"American Sniper"

"Birdman"

"Boyhood"

"The Grand Budapest Hotel"

"The Imitation Game"

"Selma"

"The Theory of Everything"

"Whiplash"

Best Actor

Steve Carell, "Foxcatcher"

Bradley Cooper, "American Sniper"

Benedict Cumberbatch, "The Imitation Game"

Michael Keaton, "Birdman"

Eddie Redmayne, "The Theory of Everything"

Best Actress

Marion Cotillard, "Two Days, One Night"

Felicity Jones, "The Theory of Everything"

Julianne Moore, "Still Alice"

Rosamund Pike, "Gone Girl"

Reese Witherspoon, "Wild"

Best Supporting Actor

Robert Duvall, "The Judge"

Ethan Hawke, "Boyhood"

Edward Norton, "Birdman"

Mark Ruffalo, "Foxcatcher"

J.K. Simmons, "Whiplash"

Best Supporting Actress

Patricia Arquette, "Boyhood"

Laura Dern, "Wild"

Keira Knightley, "The Imitation Game"

Emma Stone, "Birdman"

Meryl Streep, "Into the Woods"

Best Director

Alejandro González Iñárritu, “Birdman”

Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”

Bennett Miller, “Foxcatcher”

Wes Anderson, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”

Morten Tyldum, “The Imitation Game...

Update 02.23.15:

Winners are now indicated. I correctly guessed only 9 out of the 24 categories.

Previous 02.22.15:

Here’s an at-a-glance look at my picks for tonight’s Academy Awards — projected winners are Xed at the lefthand side. Keep in mind: those Xes don’t represent whom I think should win Oscars but whom I think will win, based on what little I can grasp about how the Academy thinks. (I’ve also noted which nominees I think should win. Kindly note that this is not necessarily my take on who did the best performance/writing/FX/whatever of the year, but whom I think is best among the nominees.)

Also noted are the two films — The Salt of the Earth (a documentary nominee) and Wild Tales (a foreign-language nominee) — that I haven’t been able to see.

I suspect I won’t be able to make it through the ceremony...

It was another incredible night at the Academy Awards, as Neil Patrick Harris hosted the 87th running of the awards season pinnacle on Sunday (February 22).

Big wins went to J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) and Patricia Arquette (Boyhood) in the Supporting Actors categories, while Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) and Julianne Moore (Still Alice) took home the golden statues for their work as Leading Actors.

Meanwhile, the night's top prize of Best Picture went to the cast and crew of "Birdman," with the Michael Keaton and Emma Stone starring film also garnering Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography honors.

The star-studded Dolby Theatre held celebration also featured an entertaining lineup of musical performances by Adam Levine, Tim McGraw, Rita Ora, Jennifer Hudson, Lady Gaga and John Legend with Common.

Check out the full list of 2015 Academy Award winners below along with all of the pictures from this year's show!

A memorable 87th annual Academy Awards for Fox Searchlight saw Birdman claim best film, director and two other statuettes to tie with The Grand Budapest Hotel’s four-strong haul.

Boyhood, which entered the evening on six nominations and had been expected to push Birdman in several of the senior categories on Sunday night, won a sole best supporting actress for Patricia Arquette.

The film’s time in the Oscar ceremony spotlight will not be forgotten, however, as Arquette paid tribute to her “Boyhood family” and made an impassioned plea for wage equality that spread like wildfire across social media.

Eddie Redmayne from The Theory Of Everything prevailed in a tight best actor contest to deny Michael Keaton another success for Birdman. The popular victory had the British actor jumping with excitement on stage at the Dolby Theatre.

Julianne Moore finally converted her fifth Academy Award nomination into a win for her performance in Still Alice in what...

The 2015 Oscars are in the books and it was Birdman taking home four awards including the coveted Best Picture along with a Best Director win for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu as well as an Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki) win. But Birdman wasn't the only film to take home four Oscars as The Grand Budapest Hotel had a small bit of domination in the below-the-line categories winning for Production Design, Costumes, Makeup & Hairstyling and Original Score (Alexandre Desplat). The only other multiple award winner was Whiplash, which took home Best Supporting Actor (J.K. Simmons), Best Film Editing and Sound Mixing. Otherwise, it was singles across the board and while there were a few interesting wins below the line, the top awards went pretty much by the books. Patricia Arquette took home Boyhood's only Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) won Best Actor over...

The Oscars took place on Sunday with "Birdman" ending up being the big winner of the night with a total of four awards for best picture, best director, best original screenplay and best cinematography. "The Grand Budapest Hotel" also won four awards, but for achievement in the technical departments. "Whiplash" won three, including Jk Simmons for best supporting actor. Meanwhile, Eddie Redmayne won the best actor award for "The Theory of Everything" and Julianne Moore won the best actress award for "Still Alice." 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: * Birdman * American Sniper * Boyhood * The Grand Budapest Hotel * The Imitation Game * Selma * The Theory of Everything * Whiplash Lead Actress: * Julianne Moore - Still Alice * Marion Cotillard - Two Days, One Night * Felicity Jones - The Theory of Everything * Rosamund Pike...

The 87th Academy Awards are being hosted by Neil Patrick Harris from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday (February 22).

Digital Spy brings you live coverage of all of the night's winners below:

Best Picture

American Sniper

Birdman - Winner!

Boyhood

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Selma

The Theory of Everything

Whiplash

Director

Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman) - Winner!

Richard Linklater (Boyhood)

Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher)

Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game)

Best Actor

Steve Carell (Foxcatcher)

Bradley Cooper (American Sniper)

Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)

Michael Keaton (Birdman)

Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) - Winner!

Best Actress

Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night)

Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything)

Julianne Moore (Still Alice) - Winner!

Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)

Reese Witherspoon (Wild)

Best Supporting Actor

Robert Duvall (The Judge)

Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)

Edward Norton (Birdman)

Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher)

Jk Simmons (Whiplash) - Winner!

The Oscars are over and so here is the full list of winners from The 87th Oscars.

Best Supporting Actor

Robert Duvall – The Judge

Ethan Hawke – Boyhood

Edward Norton – Birdman

Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher

J.K. Simmons – Whiplash

Costume Design

Milena Canonero – The Grand Budapest Hotel

Mark Bridges – Inherent Vice

Colleen Atwood – Into The Woods

Anna B. Sheppard and Jane Clive – Maleficent

Jacqueline Durran – Mr. Turner

Makeup and Hairstyling

Foxcatcher – Bill Corso and Dennis Liddiard

The Grand Budapest Hotel – Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier

Guardians Of The Galaxy – Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou and David White

Foreign Language Film

Ida – Poland; Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski

Leviathan – Russia; Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev

Tangerines – Estonia; Directed by Zaza Urushadze

Timbuktu – Mauritania; Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako

Wild Tales – Argentina; Directed by Damián Szifron

Short Film (Live Action)

Aya – Oded Binnun and Mihal Brezis

Boogaloo And Graham – Michael Lennox and Ronan Blaney

Butter Lamp (La Lampe Au Beurre De Yak...

The 87th Academy Awards were handed out Sunday, February 22nd at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood.  Here is a complete list of all the nominees and the winners as they were announced. Best Picture "American Sniper" (Clint Eastwood, Robert Lorenz, Andrew Lazar, Bradley Cooper and Peter Morgan) "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" (Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher and James W. Skotchdopole)***Winner*** "Boyhood" (Richard Linklater and Cathleen Sutherland) "The Grand Budapest Hotel" (Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales and Jeremy Dawson) "The Imitation Game" (Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky and Teddy Schwarzman) "Selma" (Christian Colson, Oprah Winfrey, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner) "The Theory of Everything" (Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce and Anthony McCarten) "Whiplash" (Jason Blum, Helen Estabrook and David Lancaster) Directing "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" (Alejandro G. Iñárritu)***Winner*** "Boyhood" (Richard Linklater) "Foxcatcher" (Bennett Miller) "The Grand Budapest Hotel" (Wes Anderson) "The Imitation Game...

Good evening and welcome to the 87th Academy Awards, live from the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

The biggest movie event of the year is with us once more, and Digital Spy will be bringing you comprehensive live coverage, from the first Manolos on the red carpet to the last teary speech from the stage.

Refresh your memory with this list of all the nominations and compare your prediction cards with our guesses for who will win all the major gongs.

21:15What were your favourite moments from tonight? And what do you think of all the big winners, especially Birdman's victory over Boyhood? Do let us know in the comments box below, and stick around on DS for our full reaction to the ceremony.

21:14Neil Patrick Harris was undoubtedly a bit hit and miss, lacking confidence in the middle more than anything else, but there were...

Oscar 2015 winners (photo: Chris Pratt during Oscar 2015 rehearsals) The complete list of Oscar 2015 winners and nominees can be found below. See also: Oscar 2015 presenters and performers. Now, a little Oscar 2015 trivia. If you know a bit about the history of the Academy Awards, you'll have noticed several little curiosities about this year's nominations. For instance, there are quite a few first-time nominees in the acting and directing categories. In fact, nine of the nominated actors and three of the nominated directors are Oscar newcomers. Here's the list in the acting categories: Eddie Redmayne. Michael Keaton. Steve Carell. Benedict Cumberbatch. Felicity Jones. Rosamund Pike. J.K. Simmons. Emma Stone. Patricia Arquette. The three directors are: Morten Tyldum. Richard Linklater. Wes Anderson. Oscar 2015 comebacks Oscar 2015 also marks the Academy Awards' "comeback" of several performers and directors last nominated years ago. Marion Cotillard and Reese Witherspoon won Best Actress Oscars for, respectively, Olivier Dahan...

All the winners from Sunday’s 87th Academy Awards.

Show host Harris signs off with a chirpy, “Buenos noches!”

Sean Penn walks on. It’s time for the big one. Best film. Will it be Birdman or Boyhood? It’s Birdman! The movie ends the night tied with The Grand Budapest Hotel on four Oscars. Inarritu, referring to his pal Alfonso Cuaron who enjoyed success with Gravity at last year’s show, says, “Two Mexicans in a row. That’s suspicious, I guess.” Slightly more seriously, Agi also calls on his fellow Mexicans to help build a strong future for his beloved country. Wow, a good night for Birdman and a surprisingly barren one for Boyhood. Pirates indeed, Ethan Hawke, but glorious pirates.

And now Matthew McConaughey saunters on stage to announce best actress. Julianne Moore, five times a nominee at the Oscars is the favourite. Will she get it this time for Still Alice? Yes she’s got...

The 2015 Academy Awards have (finally) arrived, and we can't wait to see what happens.

With huge international stars, like Julianne Moore, Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, Eddie Redmayne, and Michael Keaton up for Oscars, and some big movies, like "Boyhood," "Whiplash," "The Imitation Game," "Birdman," and "American Sniper," vying for the top prize, this year's ceremony is as competitive as ever.

Throughout the night, we'll be watching and updating the list below, so come back to see who won (and who didn't) as Hollywood's best and brightest take home the awards.

Best Picture

"Birdman" - Winner

"Boyhood"

"American Sniper"

"The Grand Budapest Hotel"

"The Imitation Game"

"Selma"

"The Theory of Everything"

"Whiplash"

Best Actress

Julianne Moore, "Still Alice" - Winner

Marion Cotillard, "Two Days, One Night"

Felicity Jones, "The Theory of Everything"

Rosamund Pike, "Gone Girl"

Reese Witherspoon, "Wild"

Best Actor

Eddie Redmayne, "The Theory of Everything" - Winner

Steve Carell,...

When it comes to predicting success and failure in Hollywood, as "The Princess Bride" screenwriter William Goldman famously said, "Nobody knows anything." Well, nobody except the accountants at PricewaterhouseCooper, who are currently counting the Oscar ballots in anticipation of Sunday's Academy Awards. But the rest of us know nothing, even experienced Oscar prognosticators.

That's especially true this year, when only a handful of the 24 categories seem like foregone conclusions. The rest are tight races, all the way down to Best Picture. This should make the Feb. 22 telecast suspenseful, but it also makes filling out your own Oscar ballot harder. Still, here are my predictions, based on nearly three decades of covering the Academy Awards, attending the ceremony a few times, having kept a close watch on the current race, and a wet index finger held up to the wind. If I do well, I'll be bragging on Monday; if not,...

Here's our guide to who we think will clean up at this year's Academy Awards, as well as who we think deserves to win...

Go into the Oscars appreciating them for what they are - awards for relatively popular, very good films - and they're a fun circus, whose mere existence ensures some movies get funded in the first place. Take them as an arbiter of what's actually the best of anything, and you're on far shakier ground. But I think most people have long accepted that.

This year alone, something as daring as Nightcrawler - a very uncomfortable, yet brilliant piece of cinema, with plenty to say - barely made it onto the Academy Awards radar. But that's democracy. Ask 5-10,000 people to choose the best thing, and many times, they're not going to choose yours.

This year's Academy Award nominations are no different in that regard, then. But...

By Michelle McCue and Gary Salem

On Wednesday, the Academy featured the 2014 Oscar-nominated films in the Documentary Short Subject and Documentary Feature categories.

Clips from the nominated films were screened, and nominees for all 10 films took part in panel discussions, talking about their own films and sharing insights on the craft of documentary filmmaking and the greater issues their nominated films explore.

Two-time Oscar winner and Academy documentary branch governor Rob Epstein opened the evening with the documentary shorts.

Epstein won the Oscar for documentary feature in 1984 for The Times Of Harvey Milk and in 1989 for Common Threads: Stories From The Quilt. His other credits include Lovelace (2013) and the TV documentary “And The Oscar Goes To…” (2014)

During his opening remarks, Epstein said the theme that ran through the nominated shorts were “life beginning and life ending.”

All the filmmakers conceded the Cinéma vérité was what was so powerful, so intimate.

When the first Academy Awards were handed out on May 16, 1929, at an Academy banquet in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, movies had just begun to talk. The attendance was 270 and guest tickets cost $5. It was a long banquet, filled with speeches, but presentation of the statuettes was handled expeditiously by Academy President Douglas Fairbanks.

The suspense that now touches most of the world at Oscar time was not always a characteristic of the Awards presentation. That first year, the award recipients were announced to the public three months ahead of the ceremony.

Today, Oscar pundits and fans alike avidly watch the precursor and guild awards to ultimately make their predictions in the 24 categories. Academy members have cast their ballots, so now it’s our turn for our Oscar picks.

Need some help in that office Oscar pool or at the party you’re throwing at home? Wamg is here to help.

The Oscar-nominated Documentary Short Subjects are a rough bunch this year, with their subjects focusing on difficult topics and circumstances that would make many flinch. From child illness to adulthood cancer, rural poverty, veteran suicide and the inner workings of a slaughterhouse, this year's documentary shorts all share the element of being incredibly emotional watches. Get a glimpse of all five nominees in the trailer below, followed by individual videos that highlight four of the films' directors who provide a bit more insight. All of the nominated shorts are now available on VOD. Documentary Short Subject Trailer "Joanna," Dir. Aneta Kopacz "White Earth," Dir. J. Christian Jensen "Our Curse," Dir. Tomasz Śliwiński "Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1," Dirs. Dana Perry, Ellen Goosenberg Kent Read More: The Year's Best Documentary Short Films, Plus Our Pick to Win the Oscar...

The Academy Awards are imminent, and if you want to be the smartest person in the room at your Oscar party, you should turn your attention to Vimeo On Demand. There, you can watch the nominees in the three short film categories.

Vimeo's collection includes nominees in three categories: Live Action Short Film, Animated Short Film, and Short Subject Documentary. The first two categories have their own anthologies that collect all five of the nominees. Renting each of these collections for a 72-hour period costs $3.95, while purchasing them outright costs $7.99.

In the Short Subject Documentary category, Vimeo is offering three nominated films a la carte. Specifically, it is touting itself as the exclusive home of two nominees: White Earth, which discusses the North Dakotan oil boom, and The Reaper, which profiles a Mexican slaughterhouse employee. Renting White Earth costs $3.99, while a 72-hour window for The Reaper costs $4.99.

"Feature films tend...

Take a sigh of relief, the Oscars are finally upon us. How many months will we squeeze out of 2015 before pundits start incessantly chattering about Awards Season again?

With any luck, 2016 will not be as contentious and as close of a race for Best Picture as it was this year. It has created a lot of excitement and confidence that the winner will be a strong one, but it has also created a lot of controversy and bile and disappointment.

My predictions for 2015 reflect the consensus of what will happen, not what should. But then with this year, anything can happen.

Best Picture

American Sniper Birdman Boyhood The Imitation Game The Grand Budapest Hotel Selma The Theory of Everything Whiplash

After almost near sweeps of critic prizes and the dominant film on Best of the Year lists by a wide margin, Boyhood may very well lose the Oscar for Best Picture on Sunday night.

Last year's live action short films were a bit better than this year's crop and none of this year's films can live up to writer/director Anders Walter's Helium, which ended up winning the live action Oscar last year and Shorts HD is now presenting it for free to watch directly below. The film, for me, was essentially like watching a live action Hayao Miyazaki feature. It's extraordinarily touching and almost magical as it centers on a dying young boy (Pelle Falk Krusb?k) who finds comfort in through the stories about the titular fantasy world as told told by the hospital's janitor Enzo (Casper Crump). Like pretty much everything the Oscar shorts have to offer, this one is a bit sad, but its sadness of overwhelmed by greatness. Marijana Jankovic also stars. Watch the short below and for my thoughts on all of this year's short film contenders...

With the Oscars just around the corner, it’s time to lay down my predictions for all 24 categories. While, as usual, most categories seem like a pretty solid lock, there’s always the possibility of a surprise or two, so let’s get right to it.

Best Animated Short Film

“The Bigger Picture” Daisy Jacobs and Christopher Hees

“The Dam Keeper” Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi

“Feast” Patrick Osborne and Kristina Reed

“Me and My Moulton” Torill Kove

“A Single Life” Joris Oprins

Best Live Action Short Film

“Aya” Oded Binnun and Mihal Brezis

“Boogaloo and Graham” Michael Lennox and Ronan Blaney

“Butter Lamp (La Lampe Au Beurre De Yak)” Hu Wei and Julien Féret

“Parvaneh” Talkhon Hamzavi and Stefan Eichenberger

“The Phone Call” Mat Kirkby and James Lucas

Best Documentary Short Subject

“Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1” Ellen Goosenberg Kent and Dana Perry

“Joanna” Aneta Kopacz

“Our Curse” Tomasz Sliwinski...

Over the weekend I watched all of this year's Oscar-nominated short films in the live action, animated and documentary categories. Well, actually, I watched almost all of them as there was one documentary short I had zero interest in watching beyond its opening credits. More on that in a second, but let's begin with the live action short films. And remember, these are predictions, not a ranking of my favorites, though I will be giving an opinionated take on each of the films. Live Action Cheryl Graf and Nissa Kashani in Parvaneh Of the three categories I'd say the live action lot had the largest selection of films I actually enjoyed. Of the bunch, only The Phone Call rubbed me the wrong way. It really doesn't accomplish much other than hammer home the melancholy as Sally Hawkins plays a crisis hotline worker who receives a call from a man (Jim Broadbent...

An extraordinary group of films concerned with corralling confusing and conflicting human experience at emotional borderlands. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

An extraordinary group of short documentaries has been nominated in this Oscar category this year, and perhaps the most striking thing about them is that none is very like what we might deem a traditional example of the genre. Instead, they share an unusual impressionism that is more concerned with corralling — or, really, attempting to corral — confusing and conflicting human experience at the emotional borderlands between life and death, between innocence and insight, and between hope and despair.

It’s tough to pick a best from among these five, but “Joanna” [IMDb], by Polish filmmaker Aneta Kopacz, is simple, beautiful, and very affecting. It’s a stunningly idyllic collage of a few months in...

If you've been reading us this season then you know we've already given you pretty thorough analyses of this year's short film categories. I watched all the films that made it to the final consideration stage and offered up thoughts on each and some somewhat informed predictions. In the end, though, it was still tricky to guess, but I did get four of the five animated players right. Now, with nominees announced, it seems worth it to review. So let's… All things considered, the animated short category is difficult to handicap. Particularly with the infiltration of other voters, as theses categories are opened up to the entire membership via screeners, it's just hard to guess which way preference will fall. The biggest surprise for me was that Glen Keane's gorgeous, heavily promoted "Duet" missed out on a nod. I frankly thought it could have put up a fight to win,...

ShortsHD, the Short Movie Channel, and Magnolia Pictures are partnering to release 2015’s Oscar-nominated Short Films in a record 450+ theaters in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Latin America on Friday, January 30. The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2015 will showcase the Live Action, Animation and Documentary short film nominees as three separate theatrical events. This will be the only theatrical screening for the films prior to the 87th Academy Awards on February 22. This year’s release includes the following nominated short films:

Live Action Short Film Nominees

Aya

Directors: Oded Binnun and Mihal Brezis

Synopsis: A young woman waiting at an airport has an unexpected encounter with an arriving passenger.

Countries of origin: France, Israel

Trt: 39:50

Language: Hebrew, English

Boogaloo and Graham

Directors: Michael Lennox and Ronan Blaney

Synopsis: Jamesy and Malachy are presented with two baby chicks to raise by their soft-hearted father.

Country of origin: UK

Trt: 14:...

Here are the nominations for the 87th Academy Awards. I found there to be a couple of surprises this morning such as The Lego Movie not getting a nomination for Best Animated Feature category. Also, the Best Picture category has just 8 titles, this is the first time the category has had less than 9 nominees since its expansion a few years ago; Gone Girl couldn’t have fit in there? I was also surprised to see Jake Gyllenhaal left out of the Best Actor list for his work in Nightcrawler.

The much deserved Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel lead the pack with 9 nominations each, followed by The Imitation Game which landed 8. My favorite movie of the year, Boyhood, came away with 6 nominations.

The Oscars will be air live on ABC Sunday, February 22nd.

Best Picture

“Birdman”

“Boyhood”

“Selma”

“The Theory of Everything”

“The Imitation Game”

“The Grand Budapest Hotel”

“American Sniper...

This past Thursday "Joanna" (2013, 40'), a Polish documentary directed by Aneta Kopacz, was included among a prestigious group of five films that received an Academy Award nomination in the Best Documentary Short Subject category. The documentary produced by Wajda Studio with the support of the National Audiovisual Institute will compete for the award alongside these productions: “Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1” , “Our Curse”, “The Reaper" (La Parka) and “White Earth”.

"The nomination for the Academy Award is far more than I have ever expected. It sounds so surreal that it's almost unbelievable. Since the very beginning, I was making a modest film about the simplest things in life and - for me - the most beautiful ones. There were sweat and tears, not enough funding, but also a lot of passion and support. Until the very end we didn't know if this film would ever be completed. At any moment my protagonist could say 'let's stop shooting'. This was her sacred right.

The film was created, traveled around the world, and, hopefully, became truly significant to a lot of viewers. Today it has reached the heights, indeed. I would like to thank all the wonderful people that I was fortunate to work with. My special thanks go out to Joanna and her family, who decided to share a part of their life with me. This is a success for all of us," said Aneta Kopacz after receiving the news about the nomination.

Apart from "Joanna”, another Polish film made to the list of nominated films "Our Curse” directed by Tomasz Śliwiński, who happens to be a current student of Wajda School. Highly praised "Ida”, directed by one of the Wajda School tutors Paweł Pawlikowski, received an Oscar© nomination in the Best Foreign Language Film category. The same film received a Best Cinematography nomination for Łukasz Żal, who was also the Dp for "Joanna."

So far, "Joanna" has been screened at more than 30 festivals all over the world and won over 20 awards, including the Best Documentary Short award in Palm Springs, Silver Eye Award in Jihlava, Prize of the Youth Jury in Leipzig, Special Mention at DocsBarcelona, Audience Award at Warsaw Film Festival, a Cinema Eye Honors nomination and many others.

"The unique thing about 'Joanna' is the subtle vision of the director. There is no narration to tell the viewer how to feel or what to experience. And this approach, which punctuates the things not said becomes a very powerful experience for the viewer." wrote Kay Shackleton at examiner.com

Th film is uses great visual poetry to portray the simple and meaningful moments in the Joanna's family life. Diagnosed with an untreatable illness, Joanna promises her son that she will do her best to live for as long as possible. It's a story of close relationships, tenderness, love and thoughtfulness.

The film was shot by one of the most talented young cinematographers, now an Oscar nominee, Łukasz Żal, and the music was composed by Oscar-winning Jan A.P. Kaczmarek.

The film was produced by Wajda Studio, co-produced by the Polish National Audiovisual Institute, and sponsored by Codemedia. Film was co-financed by the Polish Film Institute. "Joanna" was developed within the Dok Pro Documentary Program run by Wajda School, under the artistic supervision of distinguished Polish documentary filmmakers: MarcelŁoziński, Jacek Bławut and Vita Żelakeviciute.

Chicago – In an unprecedented oversight, especially for the film community in Chicago, film critic Roger Ebert’s biography “Life Itself” was snubbed for Best Documentary as the nominations were announced on Jan. 15, 2015 for the 87th Academy Awards. The films “Birdman” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel” tied for most Oscar nominations with nine.

Michael Keaton in ‘Birdman,’ Which Received Nine Oscar Nominations

Photo credit: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Both “Birdman” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel” were nominated for Best Picture along with “Selma,” “Boyhood,” “American Sniper,” “The Imitation Game,” “The Theory of Everything” and “Whiplash”. The full list of the nominations is below.

Best Picture

“American Sniper”

“Birdman”

“Boyhood”

“The Grand Budapest Hotel”

“The Imitation Game”

“Selma”

“The Theory of Everything” ”Whiplash”

Best Director

Wes Anderson, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”

Alejandro González Iñárritu, “Birdman”

Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”

Bennett Miller, “Foxcatcher”

Morten Tyldum, “The Imitation Game”

Best Actress

Marion Cotillard, “Two Days, One Night”

Felicity Jones,...

As always, the Oscar nominations announced this morning brought many surprises, both delightful and disappointing. But let's focus on the positive: Michael Keaton earned his first nod, for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Laura Dern earned her second, for Wild, and there is a lot of love here for Boyhood, Whiplash, Mr. Turner, Ida and The Grand Budapest Hotel, the last of which ties with Birdman for most nominations. It's also great to see some other favorites in the bunch, including nods for Nightcrawler, Citizenfour, the excellent documentary short White Earth and the civil rights drama Selma, which at least made an appearance among the eight Best Picture contenders. And the most exciting thing now is that it's still anyone's game for that...

Read More...

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu‘s “Birdman” and Wes Anderson‘s “The Grand Budapest Hotel” are the top contenders for the 87th annual Academy Awards, with each film having earned nine nominations on Thursday morning, including Best Picture. Both films were distributed by Fox Searchlight, as was “Wild,” which made Fox’s independent offshoot the day’s big winner with 20 total nominations.

“The Imitation Game,” which was The Weinstein Company’s biggest performer, scored eight nominations. Clint Eastwood‘s “American Sniper” and Richard Linklater‘s “Boyhood,” meanwhile, each scored 6 nominations. However, critically acclaimed films like “Selma” and “Nightcrawler” received less than some anticipated,...

It’s going to be another fabulous year at the Oscars, and this morning (January 15) the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled their nominees for the 87th Academy Awards.

All in all, there were no real surprises, with Steve Carell, Bradley Cooper, Eddie Redmayne, Michael Keaton and Benedict Cumberbatch all scoring nods for Best Actor. And predictably the Best Actress hopefuls include Felicity Jones, Reese Witherspoon, Rosamund Pike, Marion Cotillard and Julianne Moore (however, Jennifer Aniston missed out!).

As far as the Best Picture nominees, “Whiplash,” “The Theory of Everything,” “Selma,” “The Imitation Game,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “Boyhood,” “Birdman,” and “American Sniper” are all in the running. The 87th Academy Awards will go live on February 22nd. And the nominees are…

Best Picture

Boyhood

The Imitation Game

Birdman

The Theory of Everything

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Whiplash

Selma

American Sniper

Best Actress

Julianne Moore, Still Alice

Reese Witherspoon,...

Good Morning Oscar fans! Today is nomination day!

Wamg was in the thick of nomination morning fever at the home of the Oscars – the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Prior to the announcement, A.M.P.A.S. and the show’s producing team, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, gave the press assembled in the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre a first look at the new Oscar promo featuring host Neil Patrick Harris, titled “Anything Can Happen,” and given what went down this morning, that’s certainly the case.

Let’s get right to the big shockers – No Lego Movie for Best Animated Feature or Life Itself in Best Documentary Feature.

Also missing among the presumed nominees were Ava DuVernay (Selma, directing), Clint Eastwood (American Sniper, directing), Jennifer Aniston (Cake, best actress), David Oyelowo (Selma, best actor), Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler, best actor), Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel, best actor), Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl,...

Sneak Peek the full 'Oscar' nominations list for the 87th Annual Academy Awards, announced January 15, 2015 by "Star Trek" actor Chris Pine, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" director J.J. Abrams, and Oscar-winning "Gravity" director Alfonso Cuarón. The awards will be presented February 22, 2015 :

Best Picture

"American Sniper"

"Birdman"

"Boyhood"

"The Grand Budapest Hotel"

"The Imitation Game"

"Selma"

"The Theory of Everything"

"Whiplash"

Best Actor

Steve Carell, "Foxcatcher"

Bradley Cooper, "American Sniper"

Benedict Cumberbatch, "The Imitation Game"

Michael Keaton, "Birdman"

Eddie Redmayne, "The Theory of Everything"

Best Actress

Marion Cotillard, "Two Days, One Night"

Felicity Jones, "The Theory of Everything"

Julianne Moore, "Still Alice"

Rosamund Pike, "Gone Girl"

Reese Witherspoon, "Wild"

Best Supporting Actor

Robert Duvall, "The Judge"

Ethan Hawke, "Boyhood"

Edward Norton, "Birdman"

Mark Ruffalo, "Foxcatcher"

J.K. Simmons, "Whiplash"

Best Supporting Actress

Patricia Arquette, "Boyhood"

Laura Dern, "Wild"

Keira Knightley, "The Imitation Game"

Emma Stone, "Birdman"

Meryl Streep, "Into the Woods"

Best Director

Alejandro González Iñárritu,...

The nominations for the 87th Academy Awards are in! 2014 was packed full of lots of great movies, and all the films and actors that have been nominated are deserving of it.

Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel and Alejandro Iñárritu’s Birdman and leading the pack and are tied with nine nominations. The Imitation Game comes in third with seven, followed by Richard Linklater’s Boyhood and Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper, each with six. All five of these movies have received Best Picture nominations along with three other films — Selma, The Theory of Everything, and Whiplash.

Neil Patrick Harris is set to host The 87th Annual Academy Awards, which will be held on Sunday, February 22nd, 2015, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood and will air on ABC.

I'm pretty happy with the nominations this year, although I am a little disappointed that Guardians of the Galaxy...

Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel topped this year's list of Oscar nominee's, earning nine each, including looks for Best Director for Alejandro Alejandro González Iñárritu and Wes Anderson, as well as Best Picture. The Imitation Game followed closely behind with eight nominations, including nods for its stars, Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, and director, Morten Tyldum. A complete list of this year's nominees is below.

Also competing for Best Picture against Birdman, Grand Budapest Hotel and The Imitation Game are Boyhood, American Sniper, Selma, The Theory of Everything and Whiplash.

On behalf of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), Chris Pine (Star Trek) and Oscars President Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced the nominees for the 87th Academy Awards. "Birdman" and "The Grand Budapest Hotel" dominated with nine nominations each, including Best Picture and Best Director. "The Imitation Game" followed with eight nominations. Academy Awards, which will be hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, will be presented on Sunday, February 22nd, at the Dolby Theatre, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. And the nominees are: Best Picture: * American Sniper * Birdman * Boyhood * The Grand Budapest Hotel * The Imitation Game * Selma * The Theory of Everything * Whiplash Lead Actress: * Marion Cotillard - Two Days, One Night * Felicity Jones - The Theory of Everything * Julianne Moore - Still Alice * Rosamund Pike - Gone Girl * Reese Witherspoon - Wild Lead Actor: * Steve Carell - Foxcatcher * Bradley Cooper - American Sniper * Benedict Cumberbatch -...

It's that time of year again folks, with the Academy Awards landing next month, this morning the list of official nominees were revealed. Come inside to see who's been nominated for what!

It's awards season, and while we've seen plenty of head-scratchers already through the various award shows, today brings the list of nominations for the Big one; the Oscars. The biggest movie awards show is just around the corner, and today's nominee announcement is sure to raise quite a few eyebrows as well. The leaders of the pack are The Grand Budapest Hotel and Birdman, managing to nab 9 nominations a piece, with American Sniper and The Imitation Game hot on their heels.

Check out the full list below:

Best Picture

American Sniper

Birdman

Boyhood

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Selma

The Theory of Everything

Whiplash

Best Director

Alexandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman

Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher

Wes Anderson,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has just finished announcing their nominees for the 87th Annual Academy Awards, with Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel leading the way with nine nominations apiece, followed by The Imitation Game with eight. As usual, there were plenty of surprises to be found this morning, so let’s take a look at a few:

Selma ended up not making as grand a showing as many thought it would, nabbing only two nominations (Best Picture and Best Original Song). In a shocking turn of events, Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl has been snubbed from Best Adapted Screenplay after being the leader throughout awards season, making it a wide-open category. Bennett Miller made a completely surprising appearance in Best Director for Foxcatcher, while Steve Carell managed to squeeze into the incredibly crowded Best Actor category. Bradley Cooper has also managed to sneak into Best Actor for American Sniper.

The 2015 Oscar nominations were announced this morning and while I've already furnished a few thoughts on the omissions and surprises right here I figured we would go down the line and see what stands out. Who and what films were "snubbed", what are the biggest "surprises" and so on and so forth. Rage is sure to follow in the comments and what better time than now to get it all off your chest as we lead up to the 87th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, February 22c Let's take a look and see what the verdict is on these nominations, which I will ask you to vote on at the bottom of this post. Best Picture No real surprises here as I had all eight of these films getting a nomination for Best Picture. The only difference between this list and mine, however, was I had Gone Girl getting a nomination,...

Best Picture

American Sniper

Birdman

Boyhood

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Selma

The Theory of Everything

Whiplash

Actor In A Leading Role

Steve Carell (Foxcatcher)

Bradley Cooper (American Sniper)

Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)

Michael Keaton (Birdman)

Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)

Actress In A Leading Role

Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night)

Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything)

Julianne Moore (Still Alice)

Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)

Reese Witherspoon (Wild)

Actor In A Supporting Role

Robert Duvall (The Judge)

Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)

Edward Norton (Birdman)

Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher)

J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)

Actress In A Supporting Role

Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)

Laura Dern (Wild)

Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game)

Emma Stone (Birdman)

Meryl Streep (Into the Woods)

Animated Feature Film

Big Hero 6

The Boxtrolls

How to Train Your Dragon 2

Song of the Sea

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

Cinematography

Birdman

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Ida

Mr. Turner...

The 2015 Oscar Nominations for the 87th Annual Academy Awards were unveiled Thursday morning, in which Best Picture nominees Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel lead the crop of nominations with nine nominations a piece. Boyhood and American Sniper followed with six nominations each.

The full list of nominees for Best Picture are: American Sniper, Birdman, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, Selma, The Theory of Everything, Whiplash. This makes for the first time that there have only been eight nominees in all for Best Picture.

Chris Pine, J.J. Abrams, Alfonso Cuaron and Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs revealed nominees in all 24 categories Thursday morning.

Among some of the bigger surprises compared to our predictions from Wednesday, American Sniper had a big showing while hopefuls such as Gone Girl and Selma were virtually shut out. Gone Girl missed in the Best Picture category while scoring one nomination in total for Best Actress,...