New York Film Critics Circle 2012 Winners!

The first of the Critics awards to be announced are from the New York Film Critics Circle with their pick for the best of 2012.  Here are the winners!

• Best Picture: Zero Dark Thirty
• Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
• Best Screenplay: Tony Kushner, Lincoln
• Best Actress: Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea
• Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
• Best Supporting Actress: Sally Field, Lincoln
• Best Supporting Actor: Matthew McConaughey, Bernie/Magic Mike
• Best Cinematographer: Greig Fraser, Zero Dark Thirty
• Best Animated Film: Frankenweenie
• Best Non-Fiction Film (Documentary): The Central Park Five
• Best Foreign Film: Amour
• Best First Film: David France, How To Survive a Plague

And it looks like Zero Dark Thirty has grabbed first momentum with a pair of impressive wins for Best Picture and Director.  How long do you think this is going to last?

21 Films Animated Feature Films Submitted for Oscars

Alright, here we go.  It's November and I'm pretty much going to start talking non-stop about awards season namely the Oscars from now on.  Did I mention how much I love the Oscars even though it inevitably disappoints me in some way or the other every year?  The anticipation frankly leading up to it is, hands down, the most exciting part of the race. Nothing beats it.  

Okay, so submissions have started for documentary films, foreign language films and my favorite, Best Animated Feature, a category I look forward to since its addition in 2001.  

21 films have been submitted for next year's Oscars including the usual suspects from Pixar (Brave), DreamWorks (Madagascar 3, Rise of the Guardians) and Blue Sky (Ice Age Continental Drift).  I'm pleased to see two Indian animation films, Delhi Safari and Hey Krishna (Krishna aur Kans) submit themselves although I'm surprised that Arjun: The Warrior Prince doesn't have its name up there.  

Here is the list of the films competing against each other for the nomination.

• Adventures in Zambezia   
• Brave
• Delhi Safari
• Dr. Seuss' The Lorax
• Frankenweenie   
• From Up on Poppy Hill
• Hey Krishna
• Hotel Transylvania    
• Ice Age Continental Drift
• A Liar's Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman
• Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted 
• The Mystical Laws
• The Painting  
• ParaNorman   
• The Pirates! Band of Misfits 
    
• The Rabbi's Cat
    
• Rise of the Guardians  
• Secret of the Wings    
• Walter & Tandoori's Christmas 
    
• Wreck-It Ralph
    
• Zarafa

Glad to see some different movies in the mix as well such as Frankenweenie, ParaNorman and the delightfully named French submission, Walter & Tandoori's Christmas.  We'll see which five eventually make the cut on January 10, 2013.

Around the World in Posters: Brave, Mirror Mirror and Delicacy

(Photo: iTunes Movie Trailers)

Jeremy Renner is "Bourne" again in The Bourne Legacy.

Princess Merida and mysterious blue spirits in the new Japanese poster of Brave.  Absolutely beautiful!

Moonrise Kingdom, Mirror Mirror, 65th Cannes poster and more after the cut

New Photos: Brave and Frankenweenie

Princess Merida from Brave

Frankenweenie

Two new film stills come our way courtesy of Empire Online.  First up, another look at Princess Merida in action from Brave and secondly, it's a first look at Tim Burton's Frankenweenie.  If Frankenweenie is anything like previous Burton ventures like Corpse Bride and The Nightmare Before Christmas, we should be in for a film unlike any other.  Brave releases next June while Frankenweenie opens October 5, 2012