2015 Annie Awards Announced!

How to Train Your Dragon 2 beat out the competition to emerge the big winner at the 42nd annual Annie Awards with six wins including Best Animated Feature and Best Director.  The first How to Train Your Dragon went up against Toy Story 3 at the Annies and won, but lost animated feature at the Oscars.  This time around, its sequel also had a fierce contender in the incredibly lovable and funny The LEGO Movie (which won the writing award for the co-directors, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller).  Other winners included Laika's charming The Boxtrolls which was honored with best production design and best voice acting (an inspired Sir Ben Kingsley) and Disney's Feast for best short film. Weta's character animation design in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (featuring the stellar Andy Serkis as Caesar) and Edge of Tomorrow and Big Hero 6 walked away with the live action and animated effects respectively. This was one of those rare years where a Pixar studios film wasn't released and the troubled DreamWorks, whose latest releases have underperformed, had a rare opportunity to shine. I doubt this will be the same case next year. 

Below are the full list of feature film winners:

Best Animated Feature
How to Train Your Dragon 2, DreamWorks Animation

Directing in an Animated Feature Production
Dean DeBlois, How to Train Your Dragon 2; DreamWorks Animation

Writing in an Animated Feature Production
Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, The Lego Movie; Warner Bros. Pictures

Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production
Sir Ben Kingsley as the voice of Archibald Snatcher, The Boxtrolls; Focus Features/Laika

Production Design in an Animated Feature Production
Paul Lasaine, Tom McClure, August Hall, The Boxtrolls; Focus Features/Laika

Character Animation in an Animated Feature Production
Fabio Lignini, How to Train Your Dragon 2; DreamWorks Animation

Character Animation in a Live Action Production
Daniel Barrett, Paul Story, Eteuati Tema, Alessandro Bonora, Dejan Momcilovic, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes; Weta Digital

Best Animated Short Subject
Feast, Walt Disney Animation Studios

Animated Effects in a Live Action Production
Steve Avoujageli, Atsushi Ikarashi, Pawel Grochola, Paul Waggoner, Viktor Lundqvist, Edge of Tomorrow; Sony Pictures Imageworks

Animated Effects in an Animated Production
Michael Kaschalk, Peter DeMund, David Hutchins, Henrik Falt, John Kosnik, Big Hero 6; Walt Disney Animation Studios

Music in an Animated Feature Production
John Powell, Jónsi, How to Train Your Dragon 2; DreamWorks Animation

Character Design in an Animated Feature Production
Paul Sullivan, Sandra Equihua, Jorge R. Gutierrez, The Book of Life; Reel FX

Editorial in an Animated Feature Production
John K. Carr, How to Train Your Dragon 2; DreamWorks Animation

Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production
Truong “Tron” Son Mai, How to Train Your Dragon 2; DreamWorks Animation

Best Student Film
Jason Rayner, My Big Brother; Savannah College of Art and Design

Winsor McCay Award
Didier Brunner
Lee Mendelson
Don Lusk

June Foray Award
Charles Solomon

Ub Iwerks Award
DreamWorks Animation’s Apollo Software

Special Achievement Award
The Walt Disney Family Museum

The 2015 PGA Awards announced!

The 26th Annual Producers Guild of America Awards were held last night in Los Angeles and it's safe to say that the night's big winner has shaken up the Oscar race.  The PGA Awards are usually a good indicator of who goes on to win the Best Picture Oscar.  Yesterday, it was mostly a given that Boyhood was that frontrunner.  But instead, the award honorees last night in all three film categories proved that predicting the Oscars is going to be no easy task. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) was awarded the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures and now goes in the favorite for the Screen Actors Guild Awards being held today. The animated feature, The LEGO Movie, and the documentary on beloved film critic Roger Ebert, Life Itself, both snubbed by the Academy Awards, were recognized in their respective categories. Both films, lauded all last year, are deserved winners.  But what does this now mean for the best film?  It's a race now as Birdman and Boyhood will battle it out for best picture on February 22, 2015 at the Oscars.


The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures:
Birdman (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Producers: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures:
The LEGO Movie (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Producer: Dan Lin, p.g.a.

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures:
 Life Itself (Magnolia Pictures)

Producers: Garrett Basch, Steve James, Zak Piper

2015 BAFTA nominations announced!

The British are coming! The British are coming! Well, not really, but the nominations for the 68th Annual BAFTAs are in and they're a doozy. I already see lots of snubs and omissions: Unbroken, Selma, Mr. Turner all have been denied a nomination. Smaller movies and movies that didn't just release only last month have also been rewarded quite nicely as The Grand Budapest Hotel, Boyhood and Nightcrawler all earned nods today.

I was delighted to see Ritesh Batra's The Lunchbox score a nomination in Film Not in English Language category. Hindi films have had some success landing nominations in this category before. And I'm equally pleased to see The Grand Budapest Hotel getting so much love (leading the pack with 11 nominations!). Now that I think about it, it was one of my favorite films last year. But I was definitely surprised to see that How To Train Your Dragon 2 was left out in Best Animated film category, it sure seems like The LEGO Movie is going to have a clear path to the podium, unless Laika's utterly charming The Boxtrolls has something to say about that.

In a year that hasn't had much clear consensus except for the praise that Boyhood has been receiving, the Best Picture category does seem like it could be anyone's guess.  We'll see how it all works out next week when the Oscar noms are announced.  Get ready everyone, awards season is full swing!

Here are the full list of nominations for the BAFTAs:

Best film

Birdman Alejandro González Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W Skotchdopole

Boyhood Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland

The Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson

The Imitation Game Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman

The Theory of Everything Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten

Outstanding British film

’71 Yann Demange, Angus Lamont, Robin Gutch, Gregory Burke

The Imitation Game Morten Tyldum, Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman, Graham Moore

Paddington Paul King, David Heyman

Pride Matthew Warchus, David Livingstone, Stephen Beresford

The Theory of Everything James Marsh, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten

Under the Skin Jonathan Glazer, James Wilson, Nick Wechsler, Walter Campbell

Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer

Elaine Constantine (writer/director) Northern Soul

Gregory Burke (writer), Yann Demange (director) ’71

Hong Khaou (writer/director) Lilting

Paul Katis (director/producer), Andrew Lotbinière (producer) Kajaki: The True Story

Stephen Beresford (writer), David Livingstone (producer) Pride

Film not in the English language

Ida Paweł Pawlikowski, Eric Abraham, Piotr Dzięcioł, Ewa Puszczynska

Leviathan Andrey Zvyagintsev, Alexander Rodnyansky, Sergey Melkumov

The Lunchbox Ritesh Batra, Arun Rangachari, Anurag Kashyap, Guneet Monga

Trash Stephen Daldry, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Kris Thykier

Two Days, One Night Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Denis Freyd

Documentary

20 Feet from Stardom Morgan Neville, Caitrin Rogers, Gil Friesen

20,000 Days on Earth Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard

Citizenfour Laura Poitras

Finding Vivian Maier John Maloof, Charlie Siskel

Virunga Orlando von Einsiedel, Joanna Natasegara

Animated film

Big Hero 6 Don Hall, Chris Williams

The Boxtrolls Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable

The Lego Movie Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

Director

Alejandro González Iñárritu Birdman

Richard Linklater Boyhood

Wes Anderson The Grand Budapest Hotel
James Marsh The Theory of Everything

Damien Chazelle Whiplash

Original screenplay

Birdman Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr, Armando Bó

Boyhood Richard Linklater

The Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson

Nightcrawler Dan Gilroy

Whiplash Damien Chazelle

Adapted screenplay

American Sniper Jason Hall

Gone Girl Gillian Flynn

The Imitation Game Graham Moore

Paddington Paul King

The Theory of Everything Anthony McCarten

Leading actor

Benedict Cumberbatch The Imitation Game

Eddie Redmayne The Theory of Everything

Jake Gyllenhaal Nightcrawler

Michael Keaton Birdman

Ralph Fiennes The Grand Budapest Hotel

Leading actress
Amy Adams Big Eyes

Felicity Jones The Theory of Everything

Julianne Moore Still Alice

Reese Witherspoon Wild

Rosamund Pike Gone Girl

Supporting actor

Edward Norton Birdman

Ethan Hawke Boyhood

JK Simmons Whiplash

Mark Ruffalo Foxcatcher

Steve Carell Foxcatcher

Supporting actress

Emma Stone Birdman

Imelda Staunton Pride

Keira Knightley The Imitation Game

Patricia Arquette Boyhood

Rene Russo Nightcrawler

Original music

Birdman Antonio Sánchez

The Grand Budapest Hotel Alexandre Desplat

Interstellar Hans Zimmer

The Theory of Everything Jóhann Jóhannsson

Under the Skin Mica Levi

Cinematography

Birdman Emmanuel Lubezki

The Grand Budapest Hotel Robert Yeoman

Ida Lukasz Zal, Ryzsard Lenczewski

Interstellar Hoyte van Hoytema

Mr Turner Dick Pope

Editing

Thanks to a tie in voting in this category, there are six nominations.

Birdman Douglas Crise, Stephen Mirrione

The Grand Budapest Hotel Barney Pilling

The Imitation Game William Goldenberg

Nightcrawler John Gilroy

The Theory of Everything Jinx Godfrey

Whiplash Tom Cross

Production design

Big Eyes Rick Heinrichs, Shane Vieau

The Grand Budapest Hotel Adam Stockhausen, Anna Pinnock

The Imitation Game Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana MacDonald

Interstellar Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis

Mr Turner Suzie Davies, Charlotte Watts

Costume design

The Grand Budapest Hotel Milena Canonero

The Imitation Game Sammy Sheldon Differ

Into the Woods Colleen Atwood

Mr Turner Jacqueline Durran

The Theory of Everything Steven Noble

Make-up and hair

The Grand Budapest Hotel Frances Hannon

Guardians of the Galaxy Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou, David White

Into the Woods Peter Swords King, J Roy Helland

Mr Turner Christine Blundell, Lesa Warrener

The Theory of Everything Jan Sewell

Sound
Birdman Thomas Varga, Martin Hernández, Aaron Glascock, Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño

American Sniper Walt Martin, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, Alan Robert Murray, Bub Asman

The Grand Budapest Hotel Wayne Lemmer, Christopher Scarabosio, Pawel Wdowczak

The Imitation Game John Midgley, Lee Walpole, Stuart Hilliker, Martin Jensen

Whiplash Thomas Curley, Ben Wilkins, Craig Mann

Special visual effects

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Erik Winquist, Daniel Barrett

Guardians of the Galaxy Stephane Ceretti, Paul Corbould, Jonathan Fawkner, Nicolas Aithadi

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, R Christopher White

Interstellar Paul Franklin, Scott Fisher, Andrew Lockley

X-Men: Days of Future Past Richard Stammers, Anders Langlands, Tim Crosbie, Cameron Waldbauer

British short animation

The Bigger Picture Chris Hees, Daisy Jacobs, Jennifer Majka

Monkey Love Experiments Ainslie Henderson, Cam Fraser, Will Anderson

My Dad Marcus Armitage

British short film

Boogaloo and Graham Brian J Falconer, Michael Lennox, Ronan Blaney

Emotional Fusebox Michael Berliner, Rachel Tunnard

The Kármán Line Campbell Beaton, Dawn King, Tiernan Hanby, Oscar Sharp

Slap Islay Bell-Webb, Michelangelo Fano, Nick Rowland

Three Brothers Aleem Khan, Matthieu de Braconier, Stephanie Paeplow

The EE rising star award (voted for by the public)
Gugu Mbatha-Raw

Jack O’Connell

Margot Robbie

Miles Teller

Shailene Woodley

What I'm Thankful for in 2014: Movies Edition

There's so much to be thankful about every year: family, friends, your health.  But I always make it a point to make a list of movies I'm thankful for. Why? As Mel Brooks once said, "Movies saved my life. They rescued my soul."  I feel the same way.  Through the good times and the bad times, they've been my companion in life.  So without further ado, here's my list of top 5!

GONE GIRL

1) Book adaptations: There were some great book to film adaptations out this year from Gone Girl to The Fault in Our Stars to The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.  And while they stayed faithful to the original material, they have retained their voice.  All of these films debuted at number one at the box office, a pretty impressive feat.  Who says the book is better?

THE LEGO MOVIE

2) The LEGO Movie: I'm still humming the crazily catchy 'Everything is Awesome' from the extremely funny and clever The LEGO Movie from co-directors and writers, Chris Miller and Phil Lord.  With a surprisingly emotional core and hilarious interpretations of iconic characters (I loved Will Arnett's angsty Batman), the animated film was meta to the extreme. But hey, it worked, I can't remember another film where there were more adults for an animated film than children.

THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

3) Comic book adaptations: From March until the end of summer, you couldn't go far without bumping into a comic book film.  They were everywhere, from the universes featuring Spider-Man, some Avengers, X-Men and even some new Guardians of the Galaxies.  And there's here to stay, as is evidenced by both Warner Bros. and Marvel Studios both unveiling a superhero franchise lineup that goes deep in 2020. And I'm afraid that's only the start as The Guardians of the Galaxy proved with claiming the number one this summer season.  Clearly, this audience wants more.

THE EDGE OF TOMORROW

4) Time Travel: This oft used trope was back early this summer in two highly enjoyable films, The Edge of Tomorrow (a clever sci fi Groundhog Day starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt for 2014) and X-Men: Days of Future Past where the X-Men generations past and present collided in an A-list bonanza that audiences loved.

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2

5) Hiccup and Toothless: It was a long wait but 2014 featured the return of one of my most favorite animated duos, Hiccup and Toothless, older and wise, but just as adorable in How to Train Your Dragon 2.  Their friendship goes through some pretty difficult tests in the second film from the trilogy and that ominous line about Toothless's future has me pretty worried for the finale.  But, until then, let's enjoy the lovable antics these two get into up high in the skies.  

Movie Review: The LEGO Movie

There's been an influx of sequels and franchises in animation for the past few years so it's always great to welcome the new kid of the block when it comes to original content.  The LEGO Movie, the brainchild of filmmakers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller whose Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (a delightful and puntastic sequel) released a few months ago, is made up of 100% awesomeness.  This is a fact, you can go look it up.

Based on the toy building blocks that defined most of our childhoods, the film pits the free thinkers vs. the rule followers.  All of this combined in a clever package of humour, the right amount of pop culture and a small dash of emotion makes it hard to resist.  This oft-heard tale of an ordinary hero's epic journey opens with an old man proclaiming a prophecy about the "Special" one and a piece of resistance (Yes, really!). The wise one Vitruvius is voiced by Morgan Freeman (Who else?) states that one "most interesting and special" will save the world from the Kragle and liberate the rest of the MasterBuilders.

Enter Emmet Brickowski (voiced by Chris Pratt, who's adorably clueless in the part), an ordinary construction worker who's like the rest of the citizens of Bricksburg and just longs to be a part of a group to belong to.  He has lived his whole life by the rules, doesn't question authority and is pretty much a nobody.  Until the day he runs into Wyldstyle (voiced by Elizabeth Banks) aka the girl of his dreams (we know this to be true because she is introduced in slow-motion closeup) at the construction site where he works after hours.

He is then sucked right into an adventure he would dare not dream himself as Wyldstyle believes him to be the Special and takes him to the rest of the surviving MasterBuilders and Vitruvius as they band together to take down President Business (voiced by Will Ferrell) who wants to end the world on Taco Tuesday.  The horror!  Emmet tries to fit in but it is soon obvious to everyone that he does not exhibit the skills of the chosen one.  The scene where the MasterBuilders figure out this is hilarious.  Imagine disappointing a group that includes Gandalf, Dumbledore, Superman, Wonder Woman and Abraham Lincoln!

Seriously, The LEGO Movie had me the moment I heard the prophecy by Vitruvius.  The laughs started and did not end until the movie ended.  Emmet gets his chance to shine and prove to everyone especially Wyldstyle that there is something about someone who follows the rules and she as a free thinker comes to understand where Emmet comes from.  That's a lot of deep thinking for a movie based on LEGO toys.

But that's the beauty of the film that at once is both meta and wholly original at the same time.  The supporting characters, a brooding and boastful Batman (voiced perfectly by Will Arnett), a 1980s spaceman Benny (voiced by Charlie Day) who just really wants to build a spaceship, the ever-chipper Unikitty (voiced by Alison Brie) and the conflicted good cop/bad cop (voiced by Liam Neeson) will have you in stitches.  Even the cameos by Superman (voiced by Channing Tatum) and his nemesis Green Lantern (voiced by Jonah Hill) will make you want more.

Many films based on childhood toys have tried to cash in its familiarity and make something cinematic out of it.  Some have succeeded and others have failed.  But no other movie revels in as much as The LEGO Movie does.  I have to admit, I've a bit of Emmet in me, knowing that an instruction manual is there to guide me.  I like using my imagination after all but I like have a manual in front of me as I start.

The LEGO Movie is far and above, the best movie of 2014 for me.  Others may come and win me over later on as more films release in the year.  And if the theme song "Everything is Awesome" is not firmly embedded in your brain after seeing the film, then you need to watch it again.  I know I can't wait to see it again and again.

Directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller; Screenplay by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, from a story by Dan Hageman & Kevin Hageman and Phil Lord & Christopher Miller; Cinematography by Barry Peterson and Pablo Plaisted; Editing by David Burrows & Chris McKay; Music by Mark Mothersbaugh

Rating: