ScottFeinberg.com

By Joey Magidson
Film Contributor

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No matter how we talk about the Oscar race right now, the discussion is fed through the prism of both the Best Picture candidacy of Argo and the Best Director snub of Ben Affleck. Especially now that the Producers Guild crowned Argo with their top prize over the weekend and the Screen Actors Guild did the same just hours ago, all roads of discussion go through that flick and Affleck.

One angle that I haven’t really discussed much yet is the fact that Affleck is still primarily an actor transitioning to being a director as well. This is only his third film, and while he’s seen Oscar nominations for supporting roles in both of his films (Amy Ryan for Gone Baby Gone and Jeremy Renner for The Town), no wins have come for any of his directorial outings.

This time around, Argo was supposed to be the movie that got him over the hump. In one regard, it did, since the film is nominated for seven Academy Awards and is in serious contention to win at least three or four of them. Obviously, the one place it’s notoriously not competing in is the Best Director category. Affleck was looked at as perhaps the leader of the pack for much of the season, but he wound up out in the cold on nomination morning.

The snub begs the question of whether the Academy truly has the soft spot for films directed by actors that some presume exists. Did Argo get the love it did because of — or in spite of — the admiration voters had for Affleck’s efforts?

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By Joey Magidson
Film Contributor

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Anyone who’s been following the Oscar race this year, especially after the nominations were announced, is well aware that some very surprising Best Director snubs occurred. Ben Affleck, Kathryn Bigelow and Tom Hooper have top-tier Best Picture hopefuls, but all three were left out in the cold for director. The same can be said for Quentin Tarantino, who also saw his film cited but not his own directorial work.

People have been flipping out over those Oscar omissions, but when you think about it, they’re only the latest in a long line of fine directorial efforts not rewarded by the Academy. With only five slots for Best Director, there are always going to be a group of directors snubbed for the prize. It’s the nature of a shortlist.

What you’ll see below are 10 directors who saw their films nominated for Best Picture but were snubbed by Oscar in Best Director. In a pair of cases, I came close to cheating by citing two films for the filmmakers, but I don’t think anyone here will mind too much. Some of the filmmakers listed will surprise you. Others won’t, but one thing is certain: They all deserved the nominations they didn’t receive.

Keep this in mind as we begin this look at some of the impressive names that Affleck, Bigelow, Hooper and Tarantino have joined. Also, we’re only looking at the last 50 years — I needed to cut things off somewhere, so that seemed like as good a number as any.

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By Joey Magidson
Film Contributor
And Scott Feinberg
The Hollywood Reporter

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The morning of the Oscar nominations is always an interesting time for me. A full year of predictions, hunches and plain old guesses comes down to an announcement that either humbles or validates all of my work.

Sometimes, it does both at the same time, and often, it just plain puzzles me. Once in a while, though, there are some real surprise Oscar nominations that come down the pike and take nearly everyone by surprise.

For this Top 10 list, I’m teaming up with the namesake of this site, Scott Feinberg, to tackle a piece on some of the most surprising Oscar nominations of the last 10 years. With the Academy Award nominations just around the corner on Jan. 10, we’re writing this post to remind people that there’s simply no such thing as a slam-dunk with these awards. Does the name Dreamgirls ring a bell?

We’re only going to be looking at the big six categories of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress, but as a bonus, Scott picked a special 11th choice. Consider this a super-sized Top 10 list!

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By Rachel Bennett
Television Editor & Columnist

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Happy Halloween, readers!

It’s my favorite day of the year, so I couldn’t neglect it in this week’s list. Because All Hallows Eve is so fun, below are the top 10 best Halloween comedy episodes.

Sadly, dramas are not on this list (I never would’ve been able to cut it to 10 if there had been), but feel free to leave your picks in the comments —”Home” from Fox’s The X-Files, anyone?

For me, though, I’ll leave it to laughs. So put on your best TV-themed costume, grab that bowl of fun-sized candy and check out my choices!

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By Josh Abraham

The Festival de Cannes celebrated Haiti: Carnival in Cannes, Friday night, a benefit event presented by Giorgio Armani in support of Sean Penn’s J/P Haitian Relief Organization (J/P HRO), Paul Haggis’ Artists for Peace and Justice (APJ) and Petra Nemcova’s Happy Heart’s Fund (HHF), for their united and extraordinary work in Haiti. The charities? unity reflects their collective belief that more can be accomplished by working in partnership than alone. This event is the first of its kind for the Festival de Cannes since holding benefit screenings in 1984 and 1996. Additionally, this is the first time that three charities have come together with the support of the festival for one very important cause. Preliminary calculations of money raised total over $2 million.

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On Saturday night, the 27th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival honored legendary thespian Christopher Plummer with its highest honor, the Modern Master Award, in front of a large crowd at Santa Barbara’s historic Arlington Theatre. (Previous recipients include Michael Douglas, Jodie Foster, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Diane Keaton,Sean Penn, Jeff Bridges, Peter Jackson, George Clooney, Will Smith, Cate Blanchett, Clint Eastwood, James Cameron, and Christopher Nolan.)

The 82-year-old was in fine form, answering questions, sharing stories, and telling jokes for over two hours before being presented with his statuette by Santa Barbara native Mike Mills, the writer-director of the 2011 dramedy Beginners, in which Plummer gave a colorful supporting performance (as Mills’ late father) that earned him a Critics’ Choice Award and Golden Globe Award this month and is widely expected to win him his first Oscar next month.

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By Sean O’Connell

If the “Critics” have their way this year, the Academy Award will be a silent affair.

That’s because Michel Hazanavicius’ silent, black-and-white “The Artist” has claimed the Best Picture award from the Broadcast Film Critics Association at the 17th Annual Critics’ Choice Awards, a relatively accurate predictor of the Oscars. Though the BFCA went with “The Social Network” last year, a movie that went on to lose to “The King’s Speech,” the group usually lines up with the Academy, and I expect that they will in several categories this year, as well.

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By Sean O’Connell

Leonardo DiCaprio, George Clooney, Dustin Hoffman, Sir Ben Kingsley and more have been announced as presenters at Thursday night’s 17th Annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, which are being held at the Hollywood Palladium and televised live on VH1.

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By Sean O’Connell

The Broadcast Film Critics Association announced that Sean Penn will receive the fifth annual Joel Siegel Award at the 17th annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, which will be held this Thursday, Jan. 12. The award will be presented by fellow actor and 13-time Critics’ Choice Award nominee George Clooney. The ceremony will air live on VH1 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

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By Carlos de Abreu

Happy Thanksgiving from Hollywood Film Awards, Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywoodnews.com. We want to thank all of our friends, associates, filmmakers and supporters for their continuous support and hard work. Without you we could not pursue our quest of discovering emerging filmmakers, honoring excellence in the art of filmmaking, and helping others through our “Hollywood Gives Back(r)” initiative.

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