Moviefilm Awards: Best Makeup Narrows to 10

best achievement in makeup and hairstyling the ten following films are going to fight for their nominations for The Fourth Annual Moviefilm Awards:

Cloud Atlas
Django Unchained
Hitchcock
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The Impossible
Les Misérables
Lincoln
Men in Black III
Rock of Ages
Snow White and the Huntsman

Oscar Nominees Predictions!!!

best picture:
1. Argo
2. Lincoln
3. Zero Dark Thirty
4. Les Misérables
5. Life of Pi
6. Silver Linings Playbook
7. Django Unchained
8. Beasts of the Southern Wild
9. Moonrise Kingdom
10. Skyfall

directing:
1. Ben Affleck - Argo
2. Steven Spielberg - Lincoln
3. Kathryn Bigelow - Zero Dark Thirty
4. Tom Hooper - Les Misérables
5. Ang Lee - Life of Pi

original screenplay:
1. Moonrise Kingdom
2. Zero Dark Thirty
3. Django Unchained
4. Amour
5. Looper

adapted screenplay:
1. Lincoln
2. Silver Linings Playbook
3. Argo
4. Life of Pi
5. The Perks of Being a Wallflower

animated feature:
1. Frankenweenie
2. Brave
3. Wreck-It-Ralph
4. ParaNorman
5. Rise of the Guardians

leading actor:
1. Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln
2. Hugh Jackman - Les Misérables
3. Denzel Washington - Flight
4. Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook
5. John Hawkess - The Sessions

leading actress:
1. Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty
2. Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook
3. Marion Cotillard - Rust and Bone
4. Naomi Watts - The Impossible
5. Emmanuelle Riva - Amour

supporting actor:
1. Tommy Lee Jones - Lincoln
2. Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Master
3. Alan Arkin - Argo
4. Robert De Niro - Silver Linings Playbook
5. Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained

supporting actress:
1. Anne Hathaway - Les Misérables
2. Sally Field - Lincoln
3. Maggie Smith - The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
4. Helen Hunt - The Sessions
5. Nicole Kidman - The Paperboy

cinematography:
1. Life of Pi
2. Skyfall
3. Lincoln
4. Les Misérables
5. Django Unchained

production design:
1. Les Misérables
2. Lincoln
3. Cloud Atlas
4. Anna Karenina
5. Life of Pi

costume design:
1. Les Misérables
2. Anna Karenina
3. Lincoln
4. Snow White and the Huntsman
5. Mirror Mirror

makeup:
1. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
2. Lincoln
3. Les Misérables

film editing:
1. Lincoln
2. Argo
3. Zero Dark Thirty
4. Les Misérables
5. Skyfall

visual effects:
1. Life of Pi
2. The Avengers
3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
4. Prometheus
5. Cloud Atlas

sound mixing:
1. Zero Dark Thirty
2. Skyfall
3. Les Misérables
4. The Avengers
5. Prometheus

sound editing:
1. The Avengers
2. Skyfall
3. Zero Dark Thirty
4. Life of Pi
5. Prometheus

score:
1. Life of Pi
2. Lincoln
3. Argo
4. Cloud Atlas
5. Beasts of the Southern Wild

song:
1. Skyfall - Skyfall
2. Suddenly - Les Misérables
3. Still Alive - Paul Williams Still Alive
4. Touch the Sky - Brave
5. Pi's Lullaby - Life of Pi

... I haven't seen all of the great contenders, but from what I have, I hope for many nominations for Les Misérables and Life of Pi. I hope for Wallis and Riva to be both nominated, I hope for Looper and Skyfall to be nominated in many categories, I hope for Lincoln to be snubbed in major categories (which is not going to happen, I know) and most of all I hope for major surprises. It would be too boring without them !!! 

WGA, PGA and others...

The first thing: Happy New Year! A wish you the best luck and the time spent with films.
The other things: The day after tommorrow the Producers Guild Awards, Writers Guild Awards and Art Directors Guild Awards will announce their nominees. I don't feel like predicting Art Directors Guild Awards, but the rest I'll try:

Writers Guild Awards: It happens every year. So many great scripts and huge contenders are ineligible for this award, so you just shouldn't and can't take it seriously. From the little films that stayed in competition, here are my predictions:
original screenplay:
Flight
Looper
The Master
Moonrise Kingdom
Zero Dark Thirty

adapted screenplay:
Argo
Lincoln
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Sessions
Silver Linings Playbook

Producer Guild Awards: This award can change the predicted very quickly (Just think of The King's speech).

best picture:
Argo
Beats of the Southern Wild
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Les Misérables
Moonrise Kingdom
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

best animated feature:
Brave
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
Rise of the Guardians
Wreck-It-Ralph

Wishes: In WGA there is nothing to wish. I really likes The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Looper, but it's very likely for them to be nominated. In PGA I wish noticing Looper or/and Skyfall. And in ADGA I wish noticing Skyfall, Moonrise Kingdom and Mirror Mirror. And what are your predictions and wishes? 

Please give a costume nomination to Rock of Ages and Men in Black III!

Though I still haven't seen some major contenders (Les Misérables, The Master, Django Unchained,...), I've been thinking about how crowded and strong this year is. You know, it's nothing special that some categories are really strong some years, but this year we can say it about all of them. I will have an extremely hard time to choose five for each category.

Yet, without seeing all of the films I'm planning on to, it would be really difficult for me to choose five nominees for best costume design. When I think of all of the costumes in all of the films I've seen, I would like to nominate all of them. Not just the showy, probable and already predicted ones like Snow White and the Huntsman, Mirror Mirror, or The Hobbit. Not even the showy ones, which are not so much predicted like Dark Shadows, Cloud Atlas, or The Woman in Black. I mean the ones, who are not so showy and therefore they are not predicted. But they are wonderful!

I mean those beautiful normal costumes, which greatly fit to the context of the film and aren't so extravagant, that it will disturb your attention to the film's story. In my opinion, that's the thing The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences should reward. Moonrise Kingdom, Lawless, The Dark Knight Rises, but especially Men in Black III and Rock of Ages. Their costume work is so great and nobody's talking about them regarding to their potential nominees. And that's sad, because if no one gives them a nod, it won't have it and it won't be nominated. It's very rare to nominate Midnight in Paris's art direction.

I just don't know, what I'll do. Even if I think about the films I haven't seen yet. Anna Karenina, Les Misérables, Django Unchained, A Royal Affair, Hitchcock. They all would fill the category and I still haven't seen them.

I know these above-mentioned films have no chance to be nominated. It would just make me extremely happy. Please, the Academy, think about it. At least nominate one of them. Or nominate them for Costume Designers Guild Awards, where there is more space. Please...

The Change of the blog

As you may have already noticed, I haven't been posting (m)any new articles. It's not because I haven't seen any films from 2012, I just didn't have the spirits to write a review about them. So I decided to just make some random thoughts about the Oscars and my own Moviefilm Awards (whose nominees I'll announce at the end of January). So let's start and I hope you'll enjoy that.

While I was watching Rock of Ages today, I've been thinking about making a new category for my Moviefilm Awards. The biggest chameleon of the year. Last year it would go to Jessica Chastain for her great work in so many films. And if I decide to have this category, there will certainly be enough actors to consider. Just now I can think of five, which would fulfill the category:
Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln, Hope Springs, Men in Black III)
John Goodman (Argo, Flight, Trouble with the Curve)
Matthew McConaughey (Magic Mike, The Paperboy, Bernie)
Jospeh Gordon-Levitt (Lincoln, The Dark Knight Rises, Looper)
Helena Bonham Carter (Les Misérables, Great Expectations, Dark Shadows)

I think this year's biggest, or most successful chameleon of this year so far would be John Goodman. Very solid performances. So, in comments you can discuss, if you want me to include this category in Moviefilm Awards. It'll help me to decide. Thank you...

Mirror Mirror

There is always a year, when we have two similar films, so called twin films. Just think about The-Illusionist-and-The-Prestige year, or Saving-Private-Ryan-and-The-Thin-Red-Line year. This year those twin films are Mirror Mirror and The Snow White and the Huntsman. The second one I didn't have a chance to see yet, but the first one's review is here.
I have to admit that I wasn't expecting much from Mirror Mirror. I just thought it's gonna be bad and I won't like it, at all. The bigger the film surprised me, while I was watching it. Unexpectedly, it was a very fine fairytale and I really enjoyed it. I have seen much better films from this genre, but I just can't deny that Mirror Mirror has something you just can't resist.

It's not even the story that makes it so likable. It's mostly the directing. Tarsem Singh did a really great job. I can't remember of any this-genre film from recent past that was so well directed. The only blame I have is to the song I believe (in love) that appears in the end of the film. The song itself is very good and nice, but it doesn't absolutely fit into the context of the entire film. It is so disturbing that I can't forgive it easily.
Another person, that makes this film so nice is Julia Roberts. Her performance is funny and very charming and she is the maker of the atmosphere. Though overacting sometimes, her performance is very fine...

The two best thing in the film are the art direction and costume design. I can't even describe it. The costume design is an object of art itself. It's all very colorful and original and it's very enjoyable to watch, just like the art direction.
A makeup is also mention-worthy, because some creations were really well done.
There are not very much visual effects in the film, but they are also very fine a should be mentioned...

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

I don't usually like films with no plot and too many characters, from which you can't decide, which are leading and which are supporting. Because of so many character I can't side with any of them and that's the reason I feel bored next to them. Finally, I found an exception.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is so adorable film with so adorable characters, that there is just no way you won't like it. The characters are so sweet, that you will easily sympathize with them. When I think about the film, it just makes me smile. Actually, there is not a character, whose story would not interest me. The screenplay is funny and fresh and the characters are written really wonderfully. They are just like any of us, but they are not boring. The screenplay always makes you enjoy the film because it always has an ace to play. When you think that some character's story will not surprise you anymore, a reversal comes.

John Madden's access to the characters and the film itself is very sensitive. The film, though it is too long for my taste, is never boring. You watch the character's stories and you just enjoy every moment. And that's because of the great and very lovable atmosphere. The contrast between the calm of the characters (or the oldness) and the noisy life in India is really perfectly showed.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel probably won't score in the technical categories. The cinematography, the makeup, the costume design, the score are nothing special. But there is something mention-worthy. The first thing is the art direction, that is really great. The hotel, the city, or the call center. It is not only beautiful, but even perfectly works for the film. The other thing is the editing (oh, I'm rhyming :). It is really not easy to edit this kind of film. Many characters, many locations and it need to be not chaotic. And Chris Gill succeeded in this. 

The performances. They are all really great. And when I say all, I mean all. There is not a one bad, or just OK performance in the film. They all are great. So who has a chance to be nominated? All of them. And when I say all, I mean all. In the best cast category. If you want to know, who has a chance to be nominated in a separated (his own) category, then it's these: Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Penelope Wilton, Dev Patel and Tom Wilkinson. The other actors are also great, but they are just a little bit overshadowed by these five.