VISUAL EFFECTS SOCIETY NOMINATIONS

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture

Paul Butterworth, Charley Henley, Allen Maris and Richard Stammers (Prometheus)

Grady Cofer, Pablo Helman, Jeanie King and Glen McIntosh (Battleship)

Thomas Fisher, Susan MacLeod, Guillaume Rocheron and Bill Westenhofer (Life of Pi)

Joe Letteri, Eileen Moran, Eric Saindon and Kevin L. Sherwood (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey)

Susan Pickett, Janek Sirrs, Jeff White and Guy Williams (The Avengers)

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture
Geoff Anderson, Chris Harvey and Jeremy Hattingh (Zero Dark Thirty)

Kevin Baillie, Michael Lantieri, Chris Stoski and Ryan Tudhope (Flight)

Béatrice Bauwens, Cédric Fayolle, Nicolas Rey and Stéphane Thibert (Rust and Bone)

Felix Bergés, Sandra Hermida and Pau Costa Moeller (The Impossible)

Matt Dessero, Leslie Hough, Gregory McMurry and Tom Smith (Argo)

ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS WINNERS

AWFJ Best Of Awards

Best Film

Zero Dark Thirty

Best Director

Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty)

Best Actor

Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

Best Actress

Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables)

Best Screenplay, Original

Mark Boal (Zero Dark Thirty)

Best Screenplay, Adapted

Chris Terrio (Argo)

Best Cinematography

Claudio Miranda (Life of Pi)

Best Editing

William Goldenberg and Dylan Tichenor (Zero Dark Thirty)

Best Film Music or Score

Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild)

Best Ensemble Cast

Silver Linings Playbook

Best Animated Film

ParaNorman

Best Documentary

Searching for Sugar Man (Malik Bendjelloul)

Best Non-English-Language Film

Amour

ONLINE FILM CRITICS SOCIETY WINNERS

Best Picture

Argo

Best Director

Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master)

Best Actor

Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

Best Actress

Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty)

Best Supporting Actor

Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master)

Best Supporting Actress

Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables)

Best Original Screenplay

Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola (Moonrise Kingdom)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Chris Terrio (Argo)

NORTH TEXAS FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES

Best Picture

Lincoln

Best Director

Steven Spielberg (Lincoln)

Best Actor

Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

Best Actress

Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)

Best Supporting Actor

Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln)

Best Supporting Actress

Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables)

BAFTA RISING STAR NOMINEES ANNOUNCED

Elizabeth Olsen
Andrea Riseborough
Suraj Sharma
Juno Temple
Alicia Vikander

REVIEW - DJANGO UNCHAINED

Django Unchained just starts, and goes on until it just ends. Quentin Tarantino has been lauded for simultaneously juggling several narrative threads throughout his films; here, he untangles each thread and tells a straightforward story in a straightforward way. Events line up in an orderly fashion, and not one dares raise its head until Tarantino has dusted off the last. You'll think you're on the road to one destination, until you're on the road to another, then another, then another etc. QT isn't famed for grace as a filmmaker; Django is his most graceless film. As the plot meanders from one objective to the next, gratification is derived from a peppy script (perhaps his funniest) and a variety of perfectly-pitched performances. Christoph Waltz is a standout (so, too, is his horse Fritz), Jamie Foxx is highly expressive in a role without a lot of dialogue, Kerry Washington doesn't have much to do, but does it all with gusto, and Samuel L. Jackson shows what he's capable of when not asked to merely play himself again. Leonardo DiCaprio is lumbered with a character Tarantino doesn't fully understand, and so doesn't know how to write, although DiCaprio is as much to blame, approaching it like an arrogant drama student, all saunter and swag, with a heinous accent. By this stage, though, the film has already begun to wind down, and the ensuing second half feels like half an hour stretched out for no better purpose than to show off (something I imagine Sally Menke might have sorted out). The flashes of brilliance remain, occurring here and there, and a few comedic jaunts, and a few very bloody ones, enliven affairs to an extent. But there's a shorter, more cohesive film among the mess - an entertaining mess, certainly, but still a mess.

NORTH CAROLINA FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION NOMINATONS

Best Narrative Film

·          Lincoln

·          The Master

·          Moonrise Kingdom

·          The Perks of Being a Wallflower

·          Silver Linings Playbook

·          Zero Dark Thirty

Best Director

·          Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master)

·          Wes Anderson (Moonrise Kingdom)

·          Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty)

·          Rian Johnson (Looper)

·          Ang Lee (Life of Pi)

·          David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook)

Best Actor

·          Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook)

·          Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

·          John Hawkes (The Sessions)

·          Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)

·          Denzel Washington (Flight)

Best Actress

·          Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty)

·          Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)

·          Helen Mirren (Hitchcock)

·          Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild)

·          Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Smashed)

Best Supporting Actor

·          Javier Bardem (Skyfall)

·          Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty)

·          Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master)

·          Samuel L. Jackson (Django Unchained)

·          Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

Best Supporting Actress

·          Amy Adams (The Master)

·          Sally Field (Lincoln)

·          Gina Gershon (Killer Joe)

·          Anne Hathaway (The Dark Knight Rises)

·          Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables)

·          Emma Watson (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)

REVIEW - THE PAPERBOY

Lee Daniels' belligerently brassy follow-up to the double Oscar winning Precious is a hot mess of pure luridness, misplaced ambition and an undercooked hybrid of genres and styles, assembled all ragtag at Daniels' behest. It's like a neon light near the end of its life - flickering on and off, moments of brightness, moments of darkness, and a sensation of hollow dissatisfaction at the end. But the seediness has an intoxicating, sweaty allure. The Paperboy is set in the swampy backwoods of summertime Florida, and its smothering heat - there's only one thing to do in such heat: give in. Daniels gives in, his film is drenched in it, soggy and slippery, and falling apart; he makes no attempts to tidy things up - is this because it would spoil the film's squalidness, so apparently important, or because it would expose his directorial ineptitude? Alas, that's already on display. Daniels isn't any more fearless than most other directors, just more immediately interested in topics which others might consider peripheral to the story - his filmmaking acumen only seems engaged in such moments, especially the most explicit ones. The Paperboy's story never gets started, and it's hard to tell what it's even about, so mumbled is the dialogue. The climax seems less a natural conclusion to this non-story, more a means of manufacturing one most efficiently, and that most fundamental part of the job as director, blocking, is a nagging sore spot for him, as figures loll about the frame, ambling around spaces until their next line. It's trash, undoubtedly, but I don't believe that Daniels intended to make bad trash, incoherent, vapid trash - I believe that he tried to make good trash, vibrant, stimulating trash. Stimulation appears in the form of an able cast only, and most potently in Nicole Kidman, burning a hole through the screen as Charlotte Bless. She's in her own movie, and Kidman is brilliantly aware of this, and it's a much better movie than this one, at least when she's not in it.

HOUSTON FILM CRITICS SOCIETY WINNERS

Best Picture

Argo

Best Director

Ben Affleck (Argo)

Best Actor

Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

Best Actress

Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)

Best Supporting Actor

Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln)

Best Supporting Actress

Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables)

Best Screenplay

Tony Kushner (Lincoln)

NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS ANNOUNCES

Best Picture

1.     Amour

2.        The Master

3.        Zero Dark Thirty

Best Director

1.     Michael Haneke (Amour)

2.        Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master)

Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty)

Best Actor

1.     Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

2.        Denis Lavant (Holy Motors)

Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)

Best Actress

1.     Emmanuelle Riva (Amour)

2.        Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)

3.        Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty)

Best Supporting Actor

1.     Matthew McConaughey (Bernie / Magic Mike)

2.        Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln)

3.        Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master)

Best Supporting Actress

1.     Amy Adams (The Master)

2.        Sally Field (Lincoln)

3.        Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables)

Best Screenplay

1.     Tony Kushner (Lincoln)

2.        Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master)

3.        David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook)