ScottFeinberg.com

By Rachel Bennett
Television Editor & Columnist

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It’s pilot season, which means your favorite out-of-work TV actors, actresses, creators and writers are getting a chance to return to the small screen once more.

Although we have yet to know what new series we’ll see next year, the networks have been busy selecting projects to consider for their schedules. So far, almost 100 scripts have been chosen, and audiences will only get to see a handful actually come to fruition.

Several are duds, but there are a few promising prospects that I hope network executives will keep around for the 2013-2014 season — even if it means they have to cancel old favorites to make room (just keep Parks and Recreation, OK, NBC?).

Check out my choices for the best prospective ABC and Fox pilots, and read my selections for NBC and CBS if you missed them yesterday:

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By Joey Magidson
Film Contributor

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I’ve always had a soft spot for films that are directed by actors. In one of my recent pieces, I spoke about how the Academy looks at actors who direct. Now, I’ll be continuing my interest by focusing in on which of these multi-hyphenates are the best at what they do.

By and large, the films that actors make when they choose directorial projects have some sort of significance for them or at least play to their strengths, so disasters are few and far between. This makes it a lot of fun to celebrate the best of the bunch, since I’m able to draw from a larger pool than you normally can when looking at one particular type of filmmaker.

I take some comfort in knowing that most films directed by actors tend to be at least decent, if not better. I see almost 300 movies in a given year (in 2012 I saw 290 in total), so I undoubtedly see a lot of garbage to go along with the gems, but the flicks that actor-directors put out almost never turn out terrible.

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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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Audiences and critics around the globe love a good comedy. Comedies make you feel good inside and provide you with some temporary happiness and respite from the troubles of the world at large. They’re some of the hardest movies to make, and they’re appreciated by almost everyone.

The lone holdouts? The voters of the Academy Awards.

Since 1977, when the Woody Allen comedy Annie Hall won Best Picture, exactly zero full-on comedies have won the Oscar. Yes, Allen’s film had dramedy elements to it, but it was far more of a comedy than last year’s winner, The Artist, which would probably be the closest thing we’ve had since then to a comedic winner. Others in that sort of hybrid realm include American Beauty, Driving Miss Daisy, Forrest Gump, Shakespeare in Love and Terms of Endearment.

This year we have an unusually strong comedy contender in the David O. Russell film Silver Linings Playbook. Generally regarded as one of the five Best Picture hopefuls that can actually win the prize, it faces an uphill battle due to its humor, much as Les Miserables does with its low Rotten Tomatoes score (as I recently discussed here) and Argo does with its comparatively early release date.

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By Josh Abraham

The Los Angeles Film Festival, in conjunction with presenting media sponsor the Los Angeles Times and host partner L.A. LIVE, announced the Closing Night film and official US and international selections for the 2012 Festival. Guest director, artists in residence and conversations with special guests will be announced later this month. The 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival will screen a diverse slate of nearly 200 feature films, short films, and music videos, representing more than 30 countries, along with signature programs such as the Filmmaker Retreat, Poolside Chats, Coffee Talks, music events and more. As previously announced, Woody Allen’s To Rome With Love will be opening night, sponsored by Virgin America, and Lorene Scafaria’s Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Ava DuVernay’s Middle of Nowhere and Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild were selected for the Galas section.

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Last night, thanks to a very kind gesture on the part of my editor, I was able to realize a lifelong dream and sit in the audience at the Academy Awards. I covered the Oscars from the backstage press room three years ago, which was a thrill in and of itself, but, as someone who has spent a huge chunk of my life researching, writing, and talking about the Oscars, you can imagine how much more excited I was to have the chance to watch the ceremony unfold with my own two eyes. And, I’m pleased to report, the experience did not disappoint.

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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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By Sean O’Connell

The final weekend before the Academy Awards, which will be held on Feb. 26, was bustling with Guild recognitions as Oscar contenders jockey for position and wait for what remains the biggest “game” in the entertainment industry. We’ll have ample coverage of the Oscars as the lengthy (lengthy!) marathon finally draws to a close. But for Monday morning, let’s run through the last few awards that were handed out before the Oscars finally get here:

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This week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Anne Seibel, a French production designer whose creative talents and ability to speak English have made her “the go-to girl” for Hollywood productions that shoot in France — her credits include Steven Spielberg’s Munich (2005), Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette (2006), Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter (2010) — and whose work on one, Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, has now earned her a trip to the Oscars on Feb. 26 as a nominee for the best art direction Oscar. (I encourage you to check out the audio of our full conversation at the top of this post.)

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This is my assessment of the Oscar landscape for the 2012 adapted screenplay and best original screenplay Oscars.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1. Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash (The Descendants)

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