THE BIG SHORT, ROOM AND STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON WIN ARTIOS AWARDS

Here are the results of Artios Award voting by the Casting Society of America. Seven categories, seven different winners as no film was eligible to compete in more than one field. Major awards season players intermingle with lesser-celebrated titles, which is a pleasant and refreshing change from the usual slate of usual suspects. Check out the CSA's nominations for 2015 here, and their award winners below:

Best Casting (Big Budget - Drama)

Meagan Lewis, Pat Moran, Carolyn Pickman, Beth Sepko, Lucinda Syson, Victoria Thomas and Cindy Tolan (Straight Outta Compton)

Best Casting (Big Budget - Comedy)

Meagan Lewis and Francine Maisler (The Big Short)

Best Casting (Studio or Independent - Drama)

Robin D. Cook, Jonathan Oliveira and Fiona Weir (Room)

Best Casting (Studio or Independent - Comedy)

Angela Demo, Nancy Mosser and Katie Shenot (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl)

Best Casting (Low Budget - Drama)

Angela Demo (The Stanford Prison Experiment)

Best Casting (Low Budget - Comedy)

Kim Coleman (Dope)

Best Casting (Animation)

Natalie Lyon and Kevin Reher (Inside Out)

THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY LEADS 2015 CHLOTRUDIS AWARD NOMINATIONS

Eight films make the Chlotrudis Society's Best Movie slate for 2015, one more than the usual. It was a good year for films, if you believe the Chlotrudis voters - not that you'd need them to tell you that! The Duke of Burgundy leads all 47 nominated films with seven nominations; the only other film to score more than four mentions is Tangerine. Reflecting the high quality of eligible titles and the wonderfully varied tastes of society members, you'll find a number of curiosities among their choices: Carol appearing only in Best Director and a few tech categories, Room turning up in Best Editing only, and seemingly rogue mentions for Demet Akbag in Winter Sleep, and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl up for its screenplay. No word yet on when the winners are due to be announced; due to this, points will be taken for the SOS Critics' Tally now, and amended when winners are revealed. Check out the nominations below:

Best Movie

The Assassin

The Duke of Burgundy

Girlhood

Spotlight

Tangerine

Timbutu

White God

Wild Tales

Best Director

Todd Haynes (Carol)

Hou Hsiao Hsien (The Assassin)

Mundruczó Kornél (White God)

Abderrahmane Sissako (Timbuktu)

Peter Strickland (The Duke of Burgundy)

Damián Szifrón (Wild Tales)

Best Actor

Christopher Abbott (James White)

Jemaine Clement (People Places Things)

Paul Dano (Love & Mercy)

Oscar Isaac (A Most Violent Year)

Bruce Greenwood (Wildlike)

Jason Segel (The End of the Tour)

Best Actress

Ronit Elkabetz (Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem)

Nina Hoss (Phoenix)

Kikuchi Rinko (Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter)

Bel Powley (The Diary of a Teenage Girl)

Charlotte Rampling (45 Years)

Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn)

Karidja Touré (Girlhood)

Best Supporting Actor

Emory Cohen (Brooklyn)

Idris Elba (Beasts of No Nation)

Michael Fassbender (Slow West)

Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight)

Michael Shannon (99 Homes)

Best Supporting Actress

Demet Akbag (Winter Sleep)

Cynthia Nixon (James White)

Kristen Stewart (Clouds of Sils Maria)

Mya Taylor (Tangerine)

Katherine Waterston (Queen of Earth)

Best Original Screenplay

Jemaine Clement and Taiki Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows)

Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz (Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem)

Deniz Gamze Ergüven and Alice Winocour (Mustang)

Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (Spotlight)

Mundruczó Kornél, Petrányi Viktória and Wéber Kata (White God)

Peter Strickland (The Duke of Burgundy)
Damián Szifrón (Wild Tales)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Jesse Andrews – based on his novel (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl)

Emma Donoghue – based on her novel (Room)

Nick Hornby – based on the novel by Colm Tóibín (Brooklyn)

Charlie Kaufman – based on his play (Anomalisa)

Donald Margulies – based on the book by David Lipsky (The End of the Tour)

Best Cinematography

Sean Baker and Radium Cheung (Tangerine)

Nicholas D. Knowland (The Duke of Burgndy)

Edward Lachman (Carol)

Lee Ping Bin (The Assassin)

Gökhan Tiryaki (Winter Sleep)

Best Editing

Matyas Fekete (The Duke of Burgundy)

Affonso Gonçalves (Carol)

Julien Lacheray (Girlhood)

Nathan Nugent (Room)

Chris Wyatt (’71)

Best Production Design

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

Judy Becker (Carol)

Huang Wen Ying (The Assassin)

François Séguin (Brooklyn)

Pater Sparrow (The Duke of Burgundy)

Best Use of Music in a Film

Boy Meets Girl

The Duke of Burgundy

Girlhood

Love & Mercy

Tangerine

Best Performance by an Ensemble Cast

About Elly

Mustang

Spotlight

Tangerine

What We Do in the Shadows

Best Documentary

Amy

Best of Enemies

Call Me Lucky

Red Army

Stray Dog

What Happened, Miss Simone?

Buried Treasure Award

Actress

Advantageous

Appropriate Behaviour

Charlie’s Country

People Places Things

Victoria

REVIEW - ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL (ALFONSO GOMEZ-REJON)

It's disappointing to witness such talent squandered like this. Or maybe the talent only emerges in the process of squandering it - Me and Earl and the Dying Girl makes you feel deeply and profoundly, until you realise in resentment that such apparent profundity was achieved through such calculated means. Whatever deceptive imitation of technique was employed in crafting the painfully-affected mise en scene of this excruciatingly twee indie film pays off in the end, and the extent to which one can digest that may be directly related to how quickly and how completely ones rejects its stylistic and thematic delusions. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a cruel reminder that self-aware, 'meta' hipster culture still holds court over much of the American independent film industry - the screenplay, by Jesse Andrews from his novel, is so eager to inform us that it's ahead of our expectations at every juncture that it conforms to the cliche of equally-expected subversion, only with a smug, superior, self-aggrandising tone that plays into this non-culture like no film before it. It's insufferably sure of itself, and unconscionably wrong to be so. And yet it's so successful on its own terms, or perhaps those details are all related. There's half-decent comedic timing in the direction that clicks at times, though the characterisations are ruefully offensive, from the archetypal Manic Pixie Dream Girl to the film's ugly ignorance about race. What talent there is in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, and there is talent there, is squandered on stereotypes - not only in the film's characters, but in the film itself.