CHLOTRUDIS DECLARES SPOTLIGHT THE BEST FILM OF 2015

Capping off awards season 2015-16, late and sans fanfare as per, the Chlotrudis Society has announced its award winners for last year, with Spotlight matching its feat at the Oscars by winning here too. It does so with a mere two other nominations - Original Screenplay and Ensemble Cast - and no other wins, while Sean Baker's Tangerine claims three awards. Check out Chlotrudis' nominations at this link, and their awards choices below:

Best Movie
Spotlight

Best Director
Todd Haynes (Carol)

Best Actor
Christopher Abbott (James White)

Best Actress
Karidja Toure (Girlhood)

Best Supporting Actor
Michael Shannon (99 Homes)

Best Supporting Actress
Cynthia Nixon (James White)

Best Original Screenplay
Damian Szifron (Wild Tales)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Emma Donoghue - based on her novel (Room)

Best Cinematography
Sean Baker and Radium Cheung (Tangerine)

Best Editing
Julien Lacheray (Girlhood)

Best Production Design
Pater Sparrow (The Duke of Burgundy)

Best Use of Music in a Film
Matthew Smith (Tangerine)

Best Performance by an Ensemble Cast
Tangerine

Best Documentary
Amy
Call Me Lucky

Buried Treasure Award
Advantageous

SPOTLIGHT DOMINATES THE SPIRIT AWARDS

Big news for Spotlight, as Tom McCarthy's film wins every Spirit Award it was nominated for. It achieves an easy victory over Carol, which had the most nominations, though tonight's results were far from disappointing on the diversity front: three people of colour and one trans person won acting awards, including two prizes for Beasts of No Nation. It's an encouraging step from Film Independent, although somewhat dismaying if one looks closer - these were the only main categories where Oscar contenders were not represented, and given their recent trend of consistently awarding Oscar nominees where nominated, I wonder if we'd have seen the same slate of winners had these fields not been empty of Oscar-nominated talent. Let's not dwell on negative suspicion, and let's celebrate positive facts: slight Carol shut-out aside, the Spirit Awards 2015 were almost certainly far superior to what tomorrow night's Oscars look destined to be.

Best Feature

Spotlight

Best Director

Tom McCarthy (Spotlight)

Best Female Lead

Brie Larson (Room)

Best Male Lead

Abraham Attah (Beasts of No Nation)

Best Supporting Female

Mya Taylor (Tangerine)

Best Supporting Male

Idris Elba (Beasts of No Nation)

Best Screenplay

Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (Spotlight)

Best Cinematography

Edward Lachman (Carol)

Best Film Editing

Tom McArdle (Spotlight)

Best Documentary

The Look of Silence

Best International Film

Son of Saul

Best First Feature

The Diary of a Teenage Girl

Best First Screenplay

Emma Donoghue (Room)

John Cassavetes Award

Krisha

Robert Altman Award

Spotlight

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD WINS FIVE SOS CRITICS' TALLY AWARDS!

Nearly three months after the first critics group announced its choices, here are the results of the 2015 Screen On Screen Critics' Tally. Carol claims the most nominations with eight, but wins none, as the competition is steamrolled by Mad Max: Fury Road, which wins five of seven nominations. Of the five films nominated for Best Picture, only three appear on Oscar's list of eight, and neither The Big Short nor The Revenant, each tipped to win Oscar's top award by many pundits, appear here. The only category to perfectly match the Academy's is Leading Actor, where Eddie Redmayne secures a nomination for The Danish Girl despite his co-star Alicia Vikander missing; never mind, she wins the Supporting Actress award for Ex Machina. These awards were devised by assigning point values to awards and polls from critics groups, with more influential groups carrying greater values to less influential ones.

Best Picture

Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, Doug Mitchell and P. J. Voeten)

Carol (Todd Haynes, Elizabeth Karlsen, Tessa Ross, Christine Vachon and Stephen Woolley)

Inside Out (Ronnie del Carmen, Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera)

Room (Lenny Abrahamson, David Gross and Ed Guiney)

Spotlight (Blye Pagon Faust, Steve Golin, Tom McCarthy, Nicole Rocklin and Michael Sugar)

Best Director

George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Alejandr Gonzalez Inarritu (The Revenant)

Todd Haynes (Carol)

Tom McCarthy (Spotlight)

Ridley Scott (The Martian)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)

Bryan Cranston (Trumbo)

Matt Damon (The Martian)

Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs)

Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Brie Larson (Room)

Cate Blanchett (Carol)

Charlotte Rampling (45 Years)

Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn)

Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies)

Paul Dano (Love & Mercy)

Benicio del Toro (Sicario)

Michael Shannon (99 Homes)

Sylvester Stallone (Creed)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina)

Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight)

Rooney Mara (Carol)

Kristen Stewart (Clouds of Sils Maria)

Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs)

Best Original Screenplay

Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (Spotlight)

Matt Charman, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen (Bridge of Spies)

Josh Cooley, Pete Docter and Meg LeFauve (Inside Out)

Alex Garland (Ex Machina)

Quentin Tarantino (The Hateful Eight)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Emma Donoghue (Room)

Nick Hornby (Brooklyn)

Adam McKay and Charles Randolph (The Big Short)

Phyllis Nagy (Carol)

Aaron Sorkin (Steve Jobs)

Best Cinematography

John Seale (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Roger Deakins (Sicario)

Edward Lachman (Carol)

Lee Ping Bin (The Assassin)

Emmanuel Lubezki (The Revenant)

Best Editing

Margaret Sixel (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Hank Corwin (The Big Short)

Tom McArdle (Spotlight)

Stephen Mirrione (The Revenant)

Pietro Scalia (The Martian)

Best Production Design

Colin Gibson (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Judy Becker (Carol)

Thomas E. Sanders (Crimson Peak)

Francois Seguin (Brooklyn)

Eve Stewart (The Danish Girl)

Best Music

Ennio Morricone (The Hateful Eight)

Carter Burwell (Carol)

Bryce Dessner, Carsten Nicolai and Sakamoto Ryuichi (The Revenant)

Tom Holkenborg (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Johann Johannsson (Sicario)

Best Ensemble Cast

Brian d'Arcy James, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery and Stanley Tucci (Spotlight)

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Louis C. K., Bryan Cranston, David James Elliott, Elle Fanning, John Goodman, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, Michael Stuhlbarg and Alan Tudyk (Trumbo)

Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Melissa Leo, Hamish Linklater, John Magaro, Brad Pitt, Rafe Spall, Jeremy Strong, Marisa Tomei and Finn Wittrock (The Big Short)

Demian Bichir, Bruce Dern, Walton Goggins, Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth and Kurt Russell (The Hateful Eight)

Neil Brown, Paul Giamatti, Corey Hawkins, Aldis Hodge, O'Shea Jackson and Jason Mitchell (Straight Outta Compton)

Best Animated Feature

Inside Out (Ronnie del Carmen and Pete Docter)

Anomalisa (Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman)

The Good Dinosaur (Peter Sohn)

The Peanuts Movie (Steve Martino)

Shaun the Sheep Movie (Mark Burton and Richard Starzak)

Best Documentary

Amy (Asif Kapadia)

Best of Enemies (Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville)

Cartel Land (Matthew Heineman)

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (Alex Gibney)

The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)

Best Foreign Language Film

Son of Saul (Nemes Laszlo)

The Assassin (Hou Hsiao Hsien)

Goodnight Mommy (Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz)

Mustant (Deniz Gamze Erguven)

Phoenix (Christian Petzold)

SATELLITE AWARDS HONOUR SPOTLIGHT

Awards season has almost come to a complete close, but while The Revenant may be picking up ever more speed in the Oscar race, one critics group has stayed faithful to one of the former critics' favourites: Spotlight. Tom McCarthy's film won four awards from the Press Academy's Satellite Awards, while The Revenant won just one, for lead actor Leonardo DiCaprio. You can see the Satellite award nominees here, and their award winners below.

Best Motion Picture

Spotlight

Best Director

Tom McCarthy (Spotlight)

Best Actor in a Motion Picture

Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)

Best Actress in a Motion Picture

Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Christian Bale (The Big Short)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl)

Best Screenplay, Original

Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (Spotlight)

Best Screenplay, Adapted

Aaron Sorkin (Steve Jobs)

Best Cinematography

John Seale (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Film Editing

Joe Walker (Sicario)

Best Art Direction and Production Design

Adam Stockhausen (Bridge of Spies)

Best Costume Design

Huang Wen Ying (The Assassin)

Best Sound (Editing and Mixing)

The Martian

Best Visual Effects

The Walk

Best Original Score

Carter Burwell (Carol)

Best Original Song

Stefani Germanotta and Diane Warren - ''Til It Happens to You' (The Hunting Ground)

Best Ensemble

Spotlight

Best Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media

Inside Out

Best Motion Picture, Documentary

Amy

The Look of Silence

Best Motion Picture, International

Son of Saul

Best First Feature

Jayro Bustamante (Ixcanul)

Best Breakthrough Performance

Jacob Tremblay (Room)

Breakthrough Comedian of the Year

Amy Schumer (Trainwreck)

Mary Pickford Award for Contributions to the Entertainment Industry

Louise Fletcher

Auteur Award

Robert M. Young

Humanitarian Award

Spike Lee

Tesla Award

Jon Edward Miller and Robert Rutherford

CAROL WINS FIVE INTERNATIONAL CINEPHILE SOCIETY AWARDS

Trust the International Cinephile Society to correct all of awards season's mistakes. A variety of brilliant films and brilliant artists wins their 2015 awards, with Todd Haynes' Carol claiming five prizes including top awards Best Picture and Director. It's the perfect tonic to an imperfect season. Have a look at their equally impressive nominations here, and their first and second places for each category (plus further rankings for select awards) below.

Best Picture

1. Carol

2. The Assassin

3. Mad Max: Fury Road

4. Clouds of Sils Maria

5. 45 Years

6. Inside Out

7. Li'l Quinquin

8. The Duke of Burgundy

9. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence

10. Arabian Nights: Volume 1 - The Restless One / Arabian Nights: Volume 2 - The Desolate One / Arabian Nights: Volume 3 - The Enchanted One

11. Tangerine

Best Director

1. Todd Haynes (Carol)

2. Hou Hsiao Hsien (The Assassin)

Best Actor

1. Gaspard Ulliel (Saint Laurent)

2. Rohrig Geza (Son of Saul)

Best Actress

1. Rooney Mara (Carol)

2. Charlotte Rampling (45 Years)

Best Supporting Actor

1. Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina)

2. Walton Goggins (The Hateful Eight)

Best Supporting Actress

1. Kristen Stewart (Clouds of Sils Maria)

2. Mya Taylor (Tangerine)

Best Original Screenplay

1. Olivier Assayas (Clouds of Sils Maria)

2. Jessica Hausner (Amour Fou)

Best Adapted Screenplay

1. Phyllis Nagy (Carol)

2. Andrew Haigh (45 Years)

Best Cinematography

1. Lee Ping Bin (The Assassin)

2. Edward Lachman (Carol)

Best Editing

1. Margaret Sixel (Mad Max: Fury Road)

2. Matyas Fekete (The Duke of Burgundy)

Best Production Design

1. Huang Wen Ying (The Assassin)

2. Judy Becker (Carol)

Best Score

1. Carter Burwell (Carol)

2. Rich Vreeland (It Follows)

Best Ensemble

1. Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem

2. Spotlight

Best Animated Film

1. Inside Out

2. When Marnie Was There

Best Documentary

1. Heart of a Dog

2. In Jackson Heights

Best Picture Not in the English Language

1. The Assassin

2. Li'l Quinquin

3. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence

4. Arabian Nights: Volume 1 - The Restless One / Arabian Nights: Volume 2 - The Desolate One / Arabian Nights: Volume 3 - The Enchanted One

5. Jauja

6. Son of Saul

7. Amour Fou

8. Phoenix

9. Hard to Be a God

10. Saint Laurent

11. La Sapienza

CAROL LEADS INTERNATIONAL CINEPHILE SOCIETY NOMINATIONS

The International Cinephile Society has announced its nominees for achievements in film for 2015, and they've more than rectified the mistakes of other awards groups this season. Three female-led films top the nomination count, with Carol scoring ten mentions and both The Assassin and Mad Max: Fury Road scoring seven each - three of my favourite films of the year too! And the list of personal delights continues through every single category, including richly deserved tech nods for Hard to Be a God and Jauja, appearances from Tangerine in main categories and The Duke of Burgundy and Saint Laurent in select categories, again all richly deserved citations, and a considerably more diverse slate overall than any of this year's major groups. Keep a close eye on the 16 films nominated for the Best Picture Not Released in 2016 award: half of last year's list appear on this year's ICS lineup in at least one category. Winners are due to be announced on the 21st of February. Check it all out below:

Best Picture

45 Years

Arabian Nights: Volume 1 – The Restless One / Arabian Nights: Volume 2 – The Desolate One / Arabian Nights: Volume 3 – The Enchanted One

The Assassin

Carol
Clouds of Sils Maria

The Duke of Burgundy

Inside Out

Li’l Quinquin

Mad Max: Fury Road

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence

Tangerine

Best Director

Sean Baker (Tangerine)

Bruno Dumont (Li’l Quinquin)

Todd Haynes (Carol)

Hou Hsiao Hsien (The Assassin)

George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Actor

Christopher Abbott (James White)

Samuel L. Jackson (The Hateful Eight)

Röhrig Géza (Son of Saul)

Jacob Tremblay (Room)

Gaspard Ulliel (Saint Laurent)

Best Actress

Juliette Binoche (Clouds of Sils Maria)

Cate Blanchett (Carol)

Nina Hoss (Phoenix)

Rooney Mara (Carol)

Charlotte Rampling (45 Years)

Best Supporting Actor

Helmut Berger (Saint Laurent)

Emory Cohen (Brooklyn)

Benicio del Toro (Sicario)

Walton Goggins (The Hateful Eight)

Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina)

Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies)

Best Supporting Actress

Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight)

Cynthia Nixon (James White)

Erica Rivas (Wild Tales)

Kristen Stewart (Clouds of Sils Maria)

Mya Taylor (Tangerine)

Best Original Screenplay

Roy Andersson (A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence)

Olivier Assayas (Clouds of Sils Maria)

Josh Cooley, Ronnie del Carmen, Pete Docter and Meg LeFauve (Inside Out)

Bruno Dumont (Li’l Quinquin)

Jessica Hausner (Amour Fou)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Ah Cheng, Chu T’ien Wen, Hou Hsiao Hsien and Hsieh Hai Meng (The Assassin)

Andrew Haigh (45 Years)

Charlie Kaufman (Anomalisa)

Nick Lathouris, Brendan McCarthy and George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Phyllis Nagy (Carol)

Best Cinematography

Vladimir Ilin and Yuriy Klimenko (Hard to Be a God)

Edward Lachman (Carol)

Lee Ping Bin (The Assassin)

Emmanuel Lubekzi (The Revenant)

Timo Salminen (Jauja)

John Seale (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Editing

Matyas Fekete (The Duke of Burgundy)

Affonso Gonçalves (Carol)

Huang Chih Chia and Liao Ching Song (The Assassin)

Julio Perez (It Follows)

Margaret Sixel (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Production Design

Judy Becker (Carol)

Colin Gibson (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Huang Wen Ying (The Assassin)

Sergei Kokovkin, Georgiy Kropachyov and Elena Zhukova (Hard to Be a God)

Thomas E. Sanders (Crimson Peak)

Katia Wyszkop (Saint Laurent)

Best Score

Faris Badwan and Rachel Zeffira (The Duke of Burgundy)

Carter Burwell (Carol)

Tom Holkenborg (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Ennio Morricone (The Hateful Eight)

Rich Vreeland (It Follows)

Best Ensemble

Brooklyn

Carol

Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem

The Hateful Eight

Li’l Quinquin

Spotlight

Best Animated Film

Anomalisa

Inside Out

Shaun the Sheep Movie

When Marnie Was There

World of Tomorrow

Best Documentary

Amy

Heart of a Dog

In Jackson Heights

The Look of Silence

The Pearl Button

Best Picture Not in the English Language

Amour Fou

Arabian Nights: Volume 1 – The Restless One / Arabian Nights: Volume 2 – The Desolate One / Arabian Nights: Volume 3 – The Enchanted One

The Assassin

Hard to Be a God

Jauja

Li’l Quinquin

Phoenix

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence

Saint Laurent

La Sapienza

Son of Saul

Honourable Mentions

Horse Money

Mustang

Timbuktu

The Tribe

Best Picture Not Released in 2015

Aferim!

Blood of My Blood

Cemetery of Splendour

Closet Monster

Embrace of the Serpent

In the Shadow of Women

Knight of Cups

The Lobster

Mia Madre

Mountains May Depart

My Golden Days

No Home Movie

Right Now, Wrong Then

Sunset Song

The Treasure

The Witch

CAROL TAKES THE LOT AT GALECA'S DORIAN AWARDS

Why cry when you can laugh? And why laugh when you can laugh in the faces of Oscar voters, secure in the knowledge that you have far better taste than they do, and are thus far better people? Carol smacks down the competition at the 2015 Dorian Awards, winning in all but one of the categories in which it was nominated, and serving as proof that we're better than you, AMPAS. Oh, and, we're coming for you. Here were the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association's nominations, and here are their award winners:

Film of the Year

Carol

Director of the Year

Todd Haynes (Carol)

Performance of the Year - Actor

Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)

Performance of the Year - Actress

Cate Blanchett (Carol)

Screenplay of the Year

Phyllis Nagy (Carol)

Documentary of the Year

Amy

Foreign Language Film of the Year

Son of Saul

LGBTQ Film of the Year

Carol

Campy Flick of the Year

Magic Mike XXL

Visually Striking Film of the Year (honouring a production of stunning beauty, from art direction to cinematography)

Mad Max: Fury Road

Unsung Film of the Year

Tangerine

Wilde Artist of the Year (honouring a truly groundbreaking force in the fields of film, theatre and/or television)

Todd Haynes

The 'We're Wilde About You' Rising Star Award

Alicia Vikander

Wilde Wit of the Year (honouring a performer, writer or commentator whose observations both challenge and amuse)

Amy Schumer

Timeless Award

Jane Fonda