TRAILER FOR ANIMATED FILM LOVING VINCENT

Loving Vincent is a Polish-British animation about the life of Vincent van Gogh. Kickstarter raised €5,000,000 for the production of the film, which is the world's first ever full-length painted feature. The voice cast includes Saoirse Ronan, Aidan Turner, Helen McCrory, Douglas Booth and Chris O'Dowd. No release dates have been announced yet; this is the first trailer for the film.

SPOTLIGHT WINS FOUR AWARDS FROM DETROIT CRITICS

The Detroit Film Critics Society sure knew what they liked this year! After a three-way tie saw seven nominees for Best Film, voters most decidedly chose Spotlight as their film of 2015; it won three other awards too! And Alicia Vikander picked up two prizes: Supporting Actress and Breakthrough. Check out their nominees here, and their winners below:

Best Film

Spotlight

Best Director

George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Actor

Michael Caine (Youth)

Best Actress

Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn)

Best Supporting Actor

Liev Schreiber (Spotlight)

Best Supporting Actress

Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl)

Best Screenplay

Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (Spotlight)

Best Ensemble

Spotlight

Best Documentary

Amy

Best Breakthrough

Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl / Ex Machina)

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD TAKES BEST PICTURE AT BOSTON ONLINE FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION

Following strong showings at awards from major groups the NBR and the NYFCC, Mad Max: Fury Road looks to be staking an early claim on the critics section of the current awards season. It wins both Best Picture and Best Director from the Boston Online Film Critics Association, and sweeps up the association's tech awards too, winning Best Cinematography, Editing and Original Score. All the info, including a Best Picture top ten and winners in other categories, is below:

Best Picture

1. Mad Max: Fury Road

2. Creed

3. Brooklyn

4. Carol

5. Spotlight

6. Clouds of Sils Maria

7. Bridge of Spies

8. The Martian

9. Anomalisa

10. Tangerine

Best Director

George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Actor

Michael B. Jordan (Creed)

Best Actress

Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn)

Best Supporting Actor

Sylvester Stallone (Creed)

Best Supporting Actress

Kristen Stewart (Clouds of Sils Maria)

Best Screenplay

Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (Spotlight)

Best Cinematography

John Seale (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Editing

Margaret Sixel (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Original Score

Tom Holkenborg (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Ensemble

Spotlight

Best Animated Film

Inside Out

Best Documentary

Amy

Best Foreign Language Film

Son of Saul

CAROL TAKES FOUR AWARDS AT NEW YORK FILM CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS

Following yesterday's welcome little jolt at the National Board of Review, an equally welcome choice from the New York Film Critics Circle - Todd Haynes' Carol is the NYFCC's film of 2015, taking Best Director, Screenplay and Cinematography alongside top honours. It misses out on any acting prizes, however, with Saoirse Ronan and Kristen Stewart taking the female awards. Category reshuffling places Spotlight's Michael Keaton in lead in one of the bigger surprises of today's results. All details of runners-up are unofficial and unconfirmed by the NYFCC. Full details below:

Best Picture

Carol
Runner-up: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Director

Todd Haynes (Carol)
Runner-up: George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Actor

Michael Keaton (Spotlight)
#1 Runner-up: Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight)
#2 Runner-up: Jacob Tremblay (Room)

Best Actress

Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn)
= Runner-up: Cate Blanchett (Carol)
= Runner-up: Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Supporting Actor

Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies)

Best Supporting Actress

Kristen Stewart (Clouds of Sils Maria)
Runner-up: Mya Taylor (Tangerine)

Best Screenplay

Phyllis Nagy (Carol)
Runner-up: Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (Spotlight)

Best Cinematographer

Edward Lachman (Carol)

Best Animated Film

Inside Out

Best Non-Fiction Film

In Jackson Heights

Best Foreign Film

Timbuktu

Best First Film

Nemes Laszlo (Son of Saul)

Special Award

William Becker and Janus Films

Ennio Morricone

REVIEW - BROOKLYN (JOHN CROWLEY)

Brooklyn is not just set in the past, it's anchored there. It's designed in service of that setting and performed in mind of it, a smart and sensitive recreation not only of a bygone era but of the lifestyles therein. This is the most convincing element of Brooklyn - that it does convince, not as a period postcard world for modern-day notions of nostalgia but as a world equally tangible to this modern one, driven and defined by emotion. And what a depth of emotion there is to this film, between the writing (there's the smart) and the acting (there's the sensitive). Brooklyn balances its stakes quite perfectly, identifying that, though we may only be trading in matters so negligible to us 7 billion others as the comfort and security of one person, to this one person these matters are the very opposite. Director John Crowley devotes his craft to bringing forth clear, concise details as to the character of the protagonist, Saoirse Ronan's immigrant Eilis Lacey, and to her emotional state, and Ronan ensures that she brings forth our empathy too. Between their contribution and that of writer Nick Hornby, Brooklyn is sometimes too indebted to this character to inform its own character; only the arrival of Emory Cohen's impossibly irresistible Tony breaks up the feeling of pristine perfection and restraint, as Cohen provides a sweet spontaneity that makes the central relationship all the more winsome. He serves as a counterpoint to a film that benefits greatly from them - exploring national identity (specifically Irish identity, and with some accuracy) in the mid-20th Century in a manner that's entirely relatable today.