ScottFeinberg.com

By Joey Magidson
Film Contributor

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For a filmmaker, it’s rare to make a real impact with your debut feature. Most of the time, you begin your career with a calling-card movie or a work that doesn’t fully express your true talent. There are, however, certain instances when a director is able to wow audiences and leave his or her mark on the film world right from the get-go.

This year, we’ve seen Benh Zeitlin make his debut with a film that many absolutely love in Beasts of the Southern Wild. Zeitlin’s freshman feature has been mentioned as one of the top debuts by a filmmaker in some time, so that got me thinking: What are the 10 best of all time?

Of course, there’s some level of subjectivity to this kind of a list. If I were strictly going off of my personal favorite debuts, people such as Judd Apatow, Darren Aronofsky, Mel Brooks and Kevin Smith would be high up on my own Top 10. For the purposes of this list, though, I’m putting as much of my individual preference aside as possible. Below you’ll find 10 of the great directorial debuts of all time.

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By Scott Feinberg

Recently, I received a once-in-a-lifetime invitation from one of my favorite actors, Martin Sheen. Apparently Sheen, 71, had heard through the grapevine how much I loved The Way, a deeply moving low-budget indie that was written and directed by one of his famous sons, Emilio Estevez, and offered him his first leading role on the big screen in years as a father who has a complicated relationship with his son (played, appropriately enough, by Estevez). I had seen the film three times — at its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010; then at its U.S. premiere in New York in October 2011 (which was a fundraiser for the Walkabout Foundation and was attended by former President Bill Clinton); and then again on a DVD screener in January 2012. Now, Sheen wanted to know if I would care to visit him at his house in Malibu and spend an afternoon discussing it and other matters.

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On Sunday night, the 84th Academy Awards ceremony answered, once and for all, all of the questions that we have been pondering on this blog since September. Here’s a category-by-category look at why things turned out the way they did.

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This year, for the first time in 83 years, the best picture Oscar will almost certainly go to a silent movie, The Artist. That is, by this point in the season, already common knowledge. What is not, however, is the fact that there are a number of other films and performances nominated which are also largely silent. That’s highly unusual, if only because the Academy, in the sound era, has almost always rewarded showy films and performances, which tend to feature lots of dialogue.

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The British Academy of Film and Television Arts handed out its 65th annual BAFTA Awards this afternoon across the pond, and many of the same folks who will congregate at the Oscars two weeks from today were in attendance. Of course, the question now on all of their minds — and ours — is whether or not the American Academy will annoint the same major winners as the British Academy: The Artist for best picture, Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) for best director; Jean Dujardin (The Artist) for best actor; Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) for best actress; Christopher Plummer (Beginners) for best supporting actor; and Octavia Spencer (The Help) for best supporting actress.

Here’s my take…

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The 31st annual Oscar nominees luncheon took place this afternoon in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton. Hosted by the Academy’s Board of Governors, the event drew an impressive 150 of this year’s 188 nominees — including A-listers like George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Meryl Streep — all of whom were assigned seats at one of 47 tables alongside nominees from categories other than their own, as well as a few journalists, including yours truly.

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As was inevitably going to be the case, this morning’s Oscar nominations announcement made a lot of talent, publicists, and studios very happy, but also baffled and disappointed just as many if not more. Here’s an in-depth, category-by-category look at the highest-profile “snubs”…

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By Sean O’Connell

The awards race has kicked into high gear. The National Board of Review kicked things off. The Critics’ Choice Movie Awards extends the madness tonight. And we still have the Golden Globes (with host Ricky Gervais) and, of course, the Oscars on the horizon.

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A short time ago, the Writers Guild of America announced its nominees for the 64th annual WGA Awards, which celebrate the year’s best adapted and original screenplays. The nominees will be feted and the winners announced on February 19 during simultaneous ceremonies on both coasts.

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By Sean O’Connell

Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” led the Online Film Critics Society’s year-endvoting with seven nominations, so it’s no real surprise that his meditative drama emerged victorious when the group tallied its votes.

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