Latest in Awards Watch

As I say in my video review above, who knew the feel good movie of 2015 would turn out to be a documentary about a 5-year-old boy suffering from leukemia? But that’s exactly what happens in Batkid Begins, which you have to see to really believe it could – and did – happen. It is simply a heartwarming, inspiring and…

With a $32 million domestic gross – and still counting – before its upcoming July 7 DVD release, The Weinstein Company’s sleeper specialty hit, Woman In Gold is currently the top ranking independent release of 2015.  And now, as everyone else seems to be knee deep in Emmy campaigning, the Weinsteins (who else but…

This review originally was published from Cannes in May. Pixar may have taken off a rare year with no feature film releases in 2014, but the animation studio is back with a vengeance this year with two new films including the November The Good Dinosaur and, coming up on June 19, Inside Out, which is having its World…

Summer doesn’t officially start until Sunday, but the all-important fall festival season looks like it already has kicked off. The Telluride crowd was out in force Wednesday night on the Hampton roof of the London Hotel in West Hollywood for their annual Hollywood meet and greet. Fest directors Tom Luddy and Julie…

Emmy officially says “hello digital age” and “goodbye paper ballots” as the Television Academy jumps fully into the online voting pool with the launch today of the first round of balloting for nominees of the 67th annual Emmy Awards. Ballots are due by 10 PM PT on June 26. Last year, for the first time, the…

“I’m not sure why we don’t try to use this festival to kick off Oscar season in a bigger way,” Sony Pictures Classics’ co-President Tom Bernard observed at last night’s opening party for the Los Angeles Film Festival, which launched with SPC’s  upcoming August 21st release, Grandma. Since it is only still June, others…

One of the more talked-about and higher-profile movies that played the 2014 fall festival trifecta of Venice/Telluride/Toronto was director Ramin Bahrani’s intensely riveting 99 Homes. More that one year later, it finally is going to be released into theaters through new distributor Broad Green Pictures, and the…

Talk about timing! Monday’s big reveal of Vanity Fair‘s Annie Leibovitz-shot cover and photo shoot of Caitlyn (formerly known as Bruce) Jenner came the same day Amazon happened to host a screening and Q&A session for Emmy voters on Transparent, its breakthrough series dealing in part with transgender issues. I…

As I have slowly emerged during the past week from my French fog into the harsher realities of Hollywood, the likely effect of the 68th Cannes Film Festival on this year’s Oscar race has come more into focus. I consider Cannes a “soft start” to the awards season, not as key obviously as the fall trifecta of…

There can be no question that Emmy season is upon us and going into high gear, at least judging by the near-daily barrage of invitations to For Your Consideration events. I don’t know if there is a clearing house for these things, but if you are an ATAS member (as I am), you could spend every night of the week darting…

Ah, the awards gods. They giveth and then they taketh away, even in the same weekend. In what is turning out to be one of the most confounding, but intriguing, Oscar races in years, the British Academy Of Film And Television Arts has thrown in its lot with Boyhood.  The remarkable IFC indie movie that critics and…

Yes, Birdman is for real. If there was any lingering doubt that industry awards voters are dead serious about honoring a movie that is about a lot of things but especially about themselves, the DGA’s top honor erased those questions. Now after triumphing at the PGA, winning the SAG Ensemble Cast prize and DGA…