BIRDMAN WINS YET ANOTHER GUILD PRIZE AT COSTUME DESIGNERS GUILD AWARDS

Another day, another set of film awards, as the Costume Designers Guild held a starry ceremony yesterday to announce its choices for achievements in the field of costume design in 2014. Oscar nominees The Grand Budapest Hotel and Into the Woods - likely the two frontrunners for this award on Sunday - won in their respective categories, alongside another Oscar favourite, Birdman. All the details below, with the CDG's 2014 nominations here.

Excellence in Costume Design - Period Film

Milena Canonero (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

Excellence in Costume Design - Fantasy Film

Colleen Atwood (Into the Woods)

Excellence in Costume Design - Contemporary Film

Albert Wolsky (Birdman)

The Edith Head Award for the Advancement and Education of the Art of Costume Design

Deborah Nadoolman Landis

Distinguished Collaborator Award

Richard Linklater

The Lacoste Spotlight Award

Naomi Watts

Career Achievement Award

Aggie Guerard Rodgers

MOTION PICTURE SOUND EDITORS CHOOSES 2014 AWARD WINNERS

Birdman led the Motion Picture Sound Editors nominations, but no film leads their awards. Each category is won by a different film, with three of the five Oscar nominees among them. Take a look at the full details of all of the guild's winners below:

Best Sound Effects / Foley in a Feature English Language

Bub Asman, John T. Cucci, Michael Dressel, Christopher Flick, Jason King, Alan Robert Murray, Dan O'Connell, Tom Ozanich and Roland N. Thai (American Sniper)

Best Dialogue / ADR in a Feature English Language

Laura Atkinson, Andrew DeCristofaro, Glynna Grimala, Lauren Hadaway and Becky Sullivan (Unbroken)

Best Music Editing in a Feature

Will Kaplan and Terry Wilson (Birdman)

Best Sound Editing in a Feature Animation

Jeremy Bowker, Kim Foscato, Earl Ghaffari, Nia Hansen, David C. Hughes, Daniel Laurie, Jim Likowski, Shannon Mills, Alyson Dee Moore, Dan Pinder, John Roesch, Robert Shoup and Addison Teague (Big Hero 6)

Best Sound Editing in a Feature Documentary

Mariusz Andrysik, Jaroslaw Bajdowski, Mariusz Bielecki, Stefan Gawlowski, Kacper Habisiak, Marcin Kasinski, Michal Kosterkiewicz, Filip Krzemien, Filip Krzyzykowski, Anna Kufirska, Tomasz Maciatek, Anna Malarowska, Aleksandra Pajak, Jacek Pajak, Dariusz Podhajski, Agnieszka Putkiewicz, Bartosz Putkiewicz, Dariusz Stanek, Maciej Wiejaczka, Jacek Wisniewski and Henryk Zastrozny (Warsaw Uprising)

Best Sound Effects / Foley / Dialogue / ADR in a Feature Foreign Language

Ramiro Belgardt, Juan Diego Borda, Chris Diebold, Brent Findley, Trevor Gates, Angela Hemingway, Steven Iba, Charles Maynes, Jay Nierenberg, Todd Niesen, Vicki O'Reilly Vandegrift, Aleksandar Sasha Panich, Zach Schmitt, Andres Velazquez and Jonathan Wales (The Liberator)

Best Sound Editing in a Feature Musical

Bill Bernstein, Jordan Corngold, Richard Henderson, Stephanie Lowry and Curt Sobel (Get On Up)

Filmmaker Award

Darren Aronofsky

Career Achievement Award

Skip Lievsay

ASC AWARD WON BY EMMANUEL LUBEZKI FOR SECOND YEAR RUNNING

In a curious turn of events, Emmanuel Lubezki wins yet another award for a non-conventional style of cinematography, after winning rather a lot of deserving trophies for Gravity last year, including an American Society of Cinematographers award. He wins a consecutive ASC title this year for Birdman, which represents a far less deserving win, because how has anyone bought the artistic validity of this hollow stunt? Lubezki also won the BAFTA and the Critics Choice, but will his path to Oscar conclude like Gravity did, or like Children of Men and The Tree of Life? Check out the ASC's nominations here.

GRAND BUDAPEST AND GUARDIANS TIE WITH MAKE-UP / HAIR GUILD AWARDS

This year's Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild award nominations were generous to the three films that garnered Oscar nominations thereafter - all three were nominated, but only two have won awards. Indeed, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Guardians of the Galaxy are both deserving recipients of two trophies from the group, while non-Oscar-nominated Birdman wins the fifth and final prize among their selection. Check them out below:

Best Period and/or Character Make-Up

Julie Dartnell and Frances Hannon (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

Best Contemporary Make-Up

Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou (Guardians of the Galaxy)

Best Special Make-Up Effects

David White (Guardians of the Galaxy)

Best Period and/or Character Hair Styling

Julie Dartnell and Frances Hannon (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

Best Contemporary Hair Styling

Kat Drazen and Jerry Popolis (Birdman)

BIRDMAN AND BIG HERO 6 WIN CINEMA AUDIO SOCIETY AWARDS

Not many film awards to go around from the Cinema Audio Society, so why did they have to make such uninspired choices? Birdman wins the group's award for Live Action Motion Pictures, even though its sound mixing was rly just serviceable. Big Hero 6 wins for Animated Motion Pictures, which I find somewhat more understandable, though the film is hardly that much better. Check out the CAS' nominations here.

2015 WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA AWARDS

This is so stupid. The world collectively meets the Writers Guild of America's choices for the best screenplays of last year with an enormous 'meh'. They're obvious and they're average, and they're exactly what we all expected from the pool of about three eligible scripts they had to pick from. So The Grand Budapest Hotel wins Original Screenplay - great, with this and its BAFTA win, it's the clear frontrunner to win this award on Oscar night, as it ought to. The Imitation Game wins Adapted Screenplay - with this and its Scripter win, it too becomes the Oscar favourite, only that's not nearly as great, because it's comfortably the weakest screenplay in The Academy's Adapted lineup. And The Internet's Own Boy wins for Documentary Screenplay. Why don't you take a look at the WGA's nominations and see if you think voters made the right choices?

ALEJANDRO GONZALEZ INARRITU WINS DIRECTORS GUILD OF AMERICA AWARD FOR BIRDMAN

I'm an Oscar watcher in the moment. Which is to say that I enjoy the Oscar race as it occurs, and have little interest in those which have already occurred. And, being a child of the '90s, I've limited familiarity with many Oscar hits of the past. For films of 1995, for example, I was far more compelled to seek out Tran Anh Hung's Cyclo than Mel Gibson's Best Picture winner Braveheart. For films of 1989, I was far more compelled to seek out Peter Greenaway's The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover than Bruce Beresford's Best Picture winner Driving Miss Daisy. There have been some truly terrible Best Picture winners both in my lifetime and before my birth, some which I have seen and some which I have not. And although I can attest to some recent turds, such as A Beautiful Mind or Crash, none quite as bad as Birdman. No, it hasn't yet won the Oscar, but with PGA and SAG awards in the bag, it just won the DGA for its director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. This puts it firmly on track to winning the Oscar for Best Picture two weeks from today, on the 22nd of February. In so doing, it'd be the worst Best Picture winner that I have seen since The Sound of Music (I recognise that I'm in a minority about that one, btw, but the stat's still alarming, since that film was released 49 years before Birdman). Oh well. What can you do? Hope for a Boyhood win, the best case scenario as it appeared, has almost entirely evaporated. I may well jump out a window and fly away from all this shit. Other wins at the DGA's ceremony yesterday included Laura Poitras for Documentary film, winning for Citizenfour. The guild's nominations can be viewed here.

THE APES CONQUER THE VISUAL EFFECTS SOCIETY... AGAIN

Having led the nominations for the Visual Effects Society's 2014 awards, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes wins the industry group's top award, and tops all live action films in the overall awards tally. Among animated films, Big Hero 6 cleans up - these two dominant titles deserve all of the respect they get from the effects community. Check out the VES nominations right here, and their winners below:

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Photoreal / Live Action Feature Motion Picture

Hannah Bianchini, Matt Kutcher, Dan Lemmon, Joe Letteri and Ryan Stafford (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal / Live Action Feature Motion Picture

Ivy Agregan, Jake Braver, Ara Khanikian and Isabelle Langlois (Birdman)

Outstanding Models in Any Motion Media Project

Brett Achorn, Duong Minh, Scott Watanabe and Larry Wu – ‘City of San Fransokyo’ (Big Hero 6)

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal / Live Action Motion Media Project

Austin Bonang, Dennis Jones, Casey Schatz and Newton Thomas Sigel – ‘Kitchen Scene’ (X-Men: Days of Future Past)

Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal / Live Action Feature Motion Picture

Quentin Hema, Simone Riginelli, Christoph Salzmann and Florian Schroeder (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)

Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal / Live Action Feature Motion Picture

Tom Bracht, Kirsty Clark, Thomas Døhlen and Graham Page – ‘Tesseract’ (Interstellar)

Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal / Live Action Feature Motion Picture

Sam Hancock, Timmy Lundin, Premamurti Paetsch and Adam Paschke- ‘Quicksilver Pentagon Kitchen’ (X-Men: Days of Future Past)

Outstanding Performance of an Animated Character in a Photoreal / Live Action Feature Motion Picture

Andrea Merlo, Emiliano Padovani, Paul Story and Eteuati Tema – ‘Caesar’ (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)

Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture

Roy Conli, Don Hall, Zach Parrish and Chris Williams (Big Hero 6)

Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature Motion Picture

Ralf Habel, David Hutchins, Michael Kaschalk and Olun Riley – ‘Into the Portal’ (Big Hero 6)

Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature Motion Picture

Henrik Fält, David Hutchins, Michael Kaschalk and John Kosnik (Big Hero 6)

Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature Motion Picture

Colin Eckart, John Kahwaty, Zach Parrish and Zack Petroc – ‘Baymax’ (Big Hero 6)

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project

Roman Kaelin, Falko Paeper and Florian Wittmann (Wrapped)

ART DIRECTORS GUILD ANNOUNCES 2015 AWARD WINNERS

No prizes for guessing which film won awards from the Art Directors Guild! But prizes all around for The Grand Budapest Hotel, Guardians of the Galaxy and Birdman, as the guild voted their respective production designs the finest in film last year. Hard to argue with their choices, in truth, particularly the well-deserved win for Grand Budapest. It won for Adam Stockhausen in the Period category, with Guardians' Charles Wood winning in Fantasy and Birdman's Kevin Thompson in Contemporary. Only Grand Budapest is up for the Oscar later this month, an award which Stockhausen will likely win also. You can see the group's nominations right here.

OSCAR HOPEFULS WIN ACE EDDIES

There was much speculation around the ACE Eddies as they chose their favourite achievements in their field of filmmaking from 2014. Box office heavyweight American Sniper and guild high-flyer Birdman posed significant threats, a history-making one in Birdman's case (no Comedy / Musical contender has ever won here over an Oscar nominee without an Oscar nod itself). But Boyhood won in the Drama category and The Grand Budapest Hotel in the Comedy or Musical category, and all is well with the world. May Boyhood muscle its way back to the front of the pack imo. It's the best case scenario. Meanwhile, The LEGO Movie and Citizenfour won in the Animated and Documentary categories, respectively. For a flashback, check out the American Cinema Editors' nominations.

BIRDMAN WINS SAG ENSEMBLE CAST - AWARDS SPLIT OVERALL

In what's shaping up to be an unexpectedly close race to call, Birdman just won its second major guild prize in a row this awards season. The Screen Actors Guild gave the comedy their Ensemble Cast award, though mixed things up a tad by choosing Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything over Birdman's Michael Keaton. With American Sniper breaking all kinds of box office records, continued support for The Grand Budapest Hotel (including a Golden Globe victory over Birdman) and Boyhood's default frontrunner status, this year's Oscar race hasn't looked this tight since it began almost two months ago. SAG nominations are here, and their award winners below:


Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

Julianne Moore (Still Alice)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

J. K. Simmons (Whiplash)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role

Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

Zach Galifianakis, Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone and Naomi Watts (Birdman)

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture

Unbroken

Lifetime Achievement Award

Debbie Reynolds

SURPRISE! BIRDMAN WINS PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA

It hasn't won a single major award for Best Picture so far this season, as they've been distributed among non-Oscar-nominated fare or either Boyhood or The Grand Budapest Hotel. That all changed yesterday for Birdman, however, as it won the Producers Guild of America award in a fairly big upset. While Boyhood clearly still has the best shot at an Oscar win, this does open the race up somewhat, not only to the suggestion that Birdman could win, but to the fact that Boyhood is beatable. The LEGO Movie won the animated award and Life Itself the documentary one. The PGA nominees are here, ICYMI.


The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures
Birdman (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, John Lesher and James W. Skotchdopole)


Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures
The LEGO Movie (Dan Lin)


Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures
Life Itself (Garrett Basch, Steve James and Zak Piper)

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES LEADS VISUAL EFFECTS SOCIETY NOMINATIONS

In a wholly deserved feat, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes leads all films with nominations from the Visual Effects Society. It notches up five mentions in a competitive year - six features compete for the main live action award, though still they couldn't find space for Oscar-nominee Captain America: The Winter Soldier among them. Winners will be revealed on the 4th of February. Full details below:

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Photoreal / Live Action Feature Motion Picture

Blondell Aidoo, Anders Langlands, Lou Pecora, Richard Stammers and Cameron Waldbauer (X-Men: Days of Future Past)

Nicolas Aithadi, Stephane Ceretti, Paul Corbould, Jonathan Fawkner and Susan Pickett (Guardians of the Galaxy)

Hannah Bianchini, Matt Kutcher, Dan Lemmon, Joe Letteri and Ryan Stafford (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)

David Conley, Steve Ingram, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon and Kevin Sherwood (The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies)

Michael Dawson, Barrie Hemsley, Kelly Port, Adam Valdez and Carey Villegas (Maleficent)

Kevin Elam, Scott Fisher, Paul Franklin, Ian Hunter and Ann Podlozny (Interstellar)

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal / Live Action Feature Motion Picture

Ivy Agregan, Jake Braver, Ara Khanikian and Isabelle Langlois (Birdman)

Lucy Ainsworth-Taylor, Nic Birmingham, Stuart Bullen and Simon Rowe (The Imitation Game)

Greg Baxter, Jim Berney, Matt Dessero and Marshall Krasser (Divergent)

Jan Burda, Jenny Foster, Gabriel Sanchez and Simon Weisse (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

Brian Cox, Erin Dusseault, Steve Gaub, Bill George and Dave Morley (Unbroken)

Outstanding Models in Any Motion Media Project

Brett Achorn, Duong Minh, Scott Watanabe and Larry Wu – ‘City of San Fransokyo’ (Big Hero 6)

Leslie Chan, Alistair Maher, Niklas Preston and Justin Stockton – ‘Laketown’ (The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies)

Landis Fields, John Goodson, Han Dae and Anthony Rispoli – ‘Knightship’ (Transformers: Age of Extinction)

Oliver Jones, Raul Martinez and Tom McClure – ‘Mecha-Drill’ (The Boxtrolls)

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal / Live Action Motion Media Project

Jose Enrique Astacio Jr., Dion Beebe, Albert Cheng and Michael Havart – ‘Beach and Paris Attacks’ (Edge of Tomorrow)

Austin Bonang, Dennis Jones, Casey Schatz and Newton Thomas Sigel – ‘Kitchen Scene’ (X-Men: Days of Future Past)

Faraz Hameed, Dorian Knapp, Stephen Painter and Hoyte van Hoytema – ‘Tesseract’ (Interstellar)

David Houghton Williams, Keith Miller, Jonathan Paquin and Alessandro Saponi (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)

Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal / Live Action Feature Motion Picture

Matthew Adams, Simon Jung, Ben Roberts and Jordan Schilling (The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies)

Marie Victoria Denoga, Frank Fieser, Matthew Welford and Craig Wentworth – ‘Beach’ (Edge of Tomorrow)

Raphael Hamm, Isaac Layish, Tristan Myles and Sebastein von Overheidt – ‘Water’ (Interstellar)

Quentin Hema, Simone Riginelli, Christoph Salzmann and Florian Schroeder (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)

Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal / Live Action Feature Motion Picture

Stephen Bevins, Richard Bluff, Steve DeLuca and Tiffany Yung – ‘Times Square’ (Lucy)

Tom Bracht, Kirsty Clark, Thomas Døhlen and Graham Page – ‘Tesseract’ (Interstellar)

Luis Calero, Greg Kegel, Quentin Marmier, Johan Thorngren – ‘Triskelion Headquarters’ (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

Grady Cofer, Ben O’Brien, Dan Wheaton and Yukihiro Susumu – ‘Antediluvian Earth’ (Noah)

Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal / Live Action Feature Motion Picture

Jon Allitt, David Caeiro, Ronnie Menahem and Alex Nowotny (The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies)

Steve Avoujageli, Pawel Grochola, Ikarashi Atsushi and Paul Waggoner – ‘Destruction and Sand’ (Edge of Tomorrow)

Jose Burgos, Eric Jennings, Dan Pearson and Sheldon Serrao – ‘Helicarrier Broadside and Crash’ (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

Sam Hancock, Timmy Lundin, Premamurti Paetsch and Adam Paschke- ‘Quicksilver Pentagon Kitchen’ (X-Men: Days of Future Past)

Outstanding Performance of an Animated Character in a Photoreal / Live Action Feature Motion Picture

Mark Edward Allen, Daniel Barrett, Alessandro Bonora and Suzuki Masaya – ‘Koba’ (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)

Laurie Brugger, Kevin Spruce, Rachel Williams and Mark Wilson – ‘Rocket’ (Guardians of the Galaxy)

Jeremy Buttell, Darren Hendler, Elliot Rosenstein and Matthias Wittmann – ‘Thistlewit’ (Maleficent)

Andrea Merlo, Emiliano Padovani, Paul Story and Eteuati Tema – ‘Caesar’ (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)

Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture

Bruce Anderson, John C. Donkin, Kirk Garfield and Carlos Saldanha (Rio 2)

Graham Annable, Travis Knight, Brad Schiff and Anthony Stacchi (The Boxtrolls)

Bonnie Arnold, Dean DeBlois, Simon Otto and Dave Walvoord (How to Train Your Dragon 2)

Roy Conli, Don Hall, Zach Parrish and Chris Williams (Big Hero 6)

Jim Dodd, Chris McKay, Amber Naismith and David Williams (The LEGO Movie)

Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature Motion Picture

Amy Chen, Jeff Masters, Sean McEwan and Glo Minaya – ‘Magical Land of the Remembered’ (The Book of Life)

Ted Davis, Shannon Thomas, Wang Liang Yuan and Yoon Sun – ‘Oasis’ (How to Train Your Dragon 2)

Rob DeSue, Curt Enderle, Emily Greene and Jesse Gregg – ‘Boxtroll Cavern’ (The Boxtrolls)

Ralf Habel, David Hutchins, Michael Kaschalk and Olun Riley – ‘Into the Portal’ (Big Hero 6)

Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature Motion Picture

Jayandera Danappal, Matt Ebb, Miles Green and Carsten Kolve (The LEGO Movie)

Kent Estep, Timur Khodzhaev, Ralph Procida and Peter Stuart (The Boxtrolls)

Henrik Fält, David Hutchins, Michael Kaschalk and John Kosnik (Big Hero 6)

Lucas Janin, Spencer Knapp, Jason Meyer and Baptiste van Opstal – ‘The Battle’ (How to Train Your Dragon 2)

Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature Motion Picture

Ignacio Barrios, Diana Diriwaechter, Jason Sadler and Drew Winey – ‘Gabi’ (Rio 2)

Stephen Candell, Jakob Hjort Jensen, Fabio Lignini and Park Hong Seo – ‘Hiccup’ (How to Train Your Dragon 2)

Colin Eckart, John Kahwaty, Zach Parrish and Zack Petroc – ‘Baymax’ (Big Hero 6)

Travis Knight, Michael Laubach, Jason Stalman and Kyle Williams – ‘Archibald Snatcher’ (The Boxtrolls)

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project

Marco Erbrich, Vincent Langer and Christoph Westphal (Deep Dance)

Fan Ya Hui, Guan Xiao Wei, Wu Meng Xuan and Xu Sheng (Dragon Clan)

Roman Kaelin, Falko Paeper and Florian Wittmann (Wrapped)

Xavier Lafarge, Bruno Lévêque, Teo Saintier and Rémi Stompe (Murphy)