MOTION PICTURE SOUND EDITORS NOMINATIONS

Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects and Foley in a Feature Film

Argo
The Avengers
The Dark Knight Rises
Django Unchained
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Life of Pi
Prometheus
Skyfall

Best Sound Editing: Dialogue and ADR in a Feature Film

Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Moonrise Kingdom
Silver Linings Playbook
Skyfall

Best Sound Editing: Music in a Feature Film

Argo
The Cabin in the Woods
The Dark Knight Rises
Django Unchained
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Skyfall

COSTUME DESIGNERS GUILD NOMINATIONS

Best Costume Design – Period Film

Paco Delgado (Les Misérables)

Jacqueline Durran (Anna Karenina)

Joanna Johnston (Lincoln)

Kasia Walicka-Maimone (Moonrise Kingdom)

Jacqueline West (Argo)

GALECA DORIAN AWARD WINNERS

Film of the Year

Argo

Film Performance of the Year – Actor

Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

Film Performance of the Year – Actress

Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables)

Documentary of the Year

How to Survive a Plague

LGBT Film of the Year

Keep the Lights On

REVIEW - GANGSTER SQUAD

or: How to Mimic a Half Dozen Better Films, Badly. Ruben Fleischer's watery noir isn't set in 1949 L.A., as it purports, but in a cinematic ether, where good films linger, and dreck like this pass through, deriving what they can from their infantile perception of what makes those films good. It's lowbrow filmmaking masquerading as highbrow, meaningful, memorable. Not trying to be both pulp and high art simultaneously - trying to be one, and thereby, in its calamitous failure, exposing its identity as the other. Fleischer is focused on the violence - not on manufacturing an atmosphere of violence, of threatening unease, but on enlivening scenes with graphic violence and crass car chases, fight scenes, shoot-outs. These are genre staples which have become such via iconic usage in iconic films, and a plethora of inept imitations. They're not viable storytelling devices unless they're important to the story; here, they're arbitrary, perhaps applied only as guises, to distract attention away from the incompetence of the direction elsewhere. Yet these scenes, too, are disastrously staged, not least in their inevitability - the fun thing to do while watching Gangster Squad is to predict what will happen next, have a nap, then wake up and see if your predictions have been realised. If they haven't, maybe you're of an appropriate level of intelligence for this film. The actors all seem too intelligent, though, to be speaking such abysmal dialogue, and collectively embarrass themselves in doing so, save Sean Penn, who also embarrasses himself when he's not speaking, and Giovanni Ribisi, whose interpretation of the Method seems to be to make like he's going to win a separate Oscar for every word he utters - one great actor giving a terrible performance, one terrible actor giving a terrible performance. And one terrible film.

NORTH CAROLINA FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION WINNERS

Best Narrative Film

Silver Linings Playbook

Best Director

Ang Lee (Life of Pi)

Best Actor

Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)

Best Actress

Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)

Best Supporting Actor

Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master)

Best Supporting Actress

Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables)

USC SCRIPTER NOMINATIONS

• Joshuah Bearman, author of the article 'The Great Escape', Antonio J. Mendez, author of 'The Master of Disguise', and screenwriter Chris Terrio, for Argo
• For Beasts of the Southern Wild, dramatist Lucy Alibar, who wrote the play 'Juicy and Delicious', and screenwriter Benh Zeitlin, who co-wrote the screenplay with Alibar
• Novelist Yann Martel and screenwriter David Magee for Life of Pi
• Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of 'Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln', and screenwriter Tony Kushner for Lincoln
• Stephen Chbosky, author of the novel 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower', as well as the screenplay based upon the book
• For Silver Linings Playbook, author Matthew Quick and screenwriter David O. Russell

REVIEW - WAR WITCH

Led by an expressive, understated performance from Rachel Mwanza, War Witch is the visceral story of a young girl, Komona, in sub-Saharan Africa, whose existence is shaken up by the arrival of a rebel army in her village. Over 90 minutes, we watch Komona try to reassemble what she can of a stable, happy life. She fumbles around, trying to pick up the pieces, but she's waylaid by warfare, distracted by romance, and not yet of an age where she's able to see that those pieces aren't even there to be picked up any more. Komona is forced to grow up fast, when her mind and body are only beginning adolescence - she can't keep the pace of the world around her, dominated by macho young men, obsessed with power, in a social climate governed by the gun. She learns a lot, yet understands little. The only sense she is able to make of this cruel life is that it's the only one she's got, and her will to survive can see her through. Mwanza gives an powerful, enigmatic performance; she's capable of expressing through feeling, and keeps the theatrics to a minimum. When she cries, or screams, or laughs, the emotion emerges, fleetingly, from within the childlike, inquisitive stoicism, and is quite stirring in its realism. She is an actor of notable natural prowess. Director Kim Nguyen embellishes the powerful story with unexpected sensorial flair, displaying an eye for indelible imagery that doesn't overwhelm the material. There's a midway lull, but Rachel Mwanza remains most compelling throughout, and contributes enormously to a memorable film.

DIRECTORS GUILD OF AMERICA DOCUMENTARY NOMINATIONS

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary

Malik Bendjelloul (Searching for Sugar Man)

Kirby Dick (The Invisible War)

David France (How to Survive a Plague)

Lauren Greenfield (The Queen of Versailles)

Alison Klayman (Ai Wei Wei: Never Sorry)

GEORGIA FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION NOMINATIONS

Best Motion Picture

·          Amour

·          Argo

·          Beasts of the Southern Wild

·          Life of Pi

·          The Master

·          Moonrise Kingdom

·          Rust and Bone

·          Silver Linings Playbook

·          This Is Not a Film

·          Zero Dark Thirty

Best Director

·          Ben Affleck (Argo)

·          Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty)

·          Michael Haneke (Amour)

·          David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook)

·          Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild)

Best Actor

·          Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook)

·          Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

·          Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)

·          Matthias Schoenaerts (Rust and Bone)

·          Jean-Louis Trintignant (Amour)

Best Actress

·          Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty)

·          Marion Cotillard (Rust and Bone)

·          Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)

·          Emmanuelle Riva (Amour)

·          Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild)

Best Supporting Actor

·          Javier Bardem (Skyfall)

·          Robert De Niro (Silver Linings Playbook)

·          Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master)

·          Samuel L. Jackson (Django Unchained)

·          Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

Best Supporting Actress

·          Amy Adams (The Master)

·          Emily Blunt (Looper)

·          Judi Dench (Skyfall)

·          Jennifer Ehle (Zero Dark Thirty)

·          Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook)

Best Original Screenplay

·          Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola (Moonrise Kingdom)

·          Zal Batmanglij and Brit Marling (Sound of My Voice)

·          Mark Boal (Zero Dark Thirty)

·          Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon (The Cabin in the Woods)

·          Michael Haneke (Amour)

Best Adapted Screenplay

·          Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild)

·          Jacques Audiard and Thomas Bidegain (Rust and Bone)

·          Michael Bacall and Jonah Hill (21 Jump Street)

·          Tony Kushner (Lincoln)

·          David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook)

OSCAR PREDICTIONS 12 - 6 WEEKS TO AWARDS

I would have posted these yesterday, as I'll be doing these on a Sunday, but I wanted to wait until the Golden Globes were over - they were, officially, on a Sunday, even if it was Monday where I reside, but it was rather too late once they were done for me to be bothered making these predictions right then. Futile, though, to bother at all. I'm out on a limb on Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay and most of the technical and 'minor' categories.

Best Picture

Argo (Ben Affleck, George Clooney and Grant Heslov)

Best Directing

Michael Haneke (Amour)

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables)

Best Writing (Original Screenplay)

Michael Haneke (Amour)

Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

Tony Kushner (Lincoln)