Are You Excited about Star Trek 3?

I'm excited to hear that third installment of new Star Trek generation will be released in 2016. The moment I watched Star Trek Into Darkness I could not wait to hear about the next movie. Director and writer Roberto Orci explained that the new film will take place in the deep space. 

This new adventure of Enterprise will take place five years after defeating Khan.

Bad news for me is that J.J. Abrams is not going to direct third part, which on the paper does not sound good. Orci, who's co-written previous two parts now takes the top chair and probably will try to do it better than his predecessor. I really hope he does, otherwise movie will suck and we all be disappointed. Especially, when you have to wait for more two years.

Good thing is that it will bring more new characters to the screen and gets closer to original TV Series of the same name.

Check out my reviews of: Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness

Source: MovieWeb

What Hollywood Film Award tells about This Year Oscar Race?

The 17th Hollywood Film Awards, the first awards of the 2013 film awards season, was held on Monday night at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. Some of the actors had a brilliant start for future trophies. Let's take a look at previous winner and how they succeed at Oscars.

Among the big winners are Sandra Bullock for best actress, Matthew McConaughey for best actor, Julia Roberts for supp. actress and Jake Gyllenhaal for supp. actor. Without a closer look, there is no big correlation between HFA and Oscar winners, but it has correctly predicted win of Marion Cotillard, Christoph Waltz, Christopher Plummer, Forest Whitaker in respective years. Also most of HFA winners got Oscar nominations for the same film (for example, Casey Affleck)

Lee Daniels champed the nomination of Director of the year, for its work in controversial The Butler and Steve McQueen was awarded for Breakthrough Directing. Tom Hooper & Kathryn Bigelow won Hollywood and Oscar trophies the same time. Also, last year nominee David O'Russel champed HFA but could not make it at Academy Awards (still nominated).

Also, Monsters University wins Best Animated Feature nomination, which can easily result in respective Oscar, as in case of Rango, Toy Story 3, Ratatouille, Finding Nemo. And every other winner got Academy Award nomination without win. This might mean that MU is one of the front runners this year.

Whatever Hollywood Film Awards winners mean for Oscars race, it is still important that awards season has just started, bringing some very fine performances allover. 

See the winners here

Ellen DeGeneres to host the 86th Oscars

Three days ago, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences elected its new president, marketing executive Cheryl Boone Isaacs. And now the producers of next award ceremony appointed the host of the show.

Ellen DeGeneres announced on Twitter that she is going to host 86th Academy Awards Ceremony on March 2, 2014. It will be her second time overseeing the biggest movie event of the year, after being a back in 2007 at 79th ceremony.

It's official: I'm hosting the #Oscars! I'd like to thank @TheAcademy, my wife Portia and, oh dear, there goes the orchestra.
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) August 2, 2013

I am very excited about this, since she's been my favorite host of last decade. Can't wait to see Ellen on the stage, once more. Watch Ellen's first try at Oscars:

How do you feel about this news? 

Academy Changes Oscar Rules for 2014

Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Science (AMPAS) has announced changes in rules regarding Animated Feature, Foreign Language films and Documentary short.

Toy Story 3 - Best Animated Feature of 2010

According to new rules, maximum two persons will get an award for Best Animated Feature film, one of whom must have a producer credits. However, despite "maximum of two" Oscar recipients, "the director and/or key creative individual shall continue to be a recipient, and in the circumstance of a two-person team with shared and equal director credit, a third statuette may be awarded".

As for Foreign Language film and Documentary short:

From 2014 and onward, Academy voters will be able to watch the nominated films either at a theatrical screening or on DVD. That means for the first time the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ entire voting membership will automatically be eligible to choose the winners in all 24 Oscar categories. As you might know, before this rule was released Documentaries was voted only by those members, who have specifically seen all the nominees and accordingly not everybody was legible for voting. For this year and onward, Academy will provide DVDs of the nominated films in five categories: Best Foreign Language Film, Best Documentary Feature, Best Documentary Short Subject, Best Animated Short Film, and Best Live Action Short Film.

Follow the link to see the original text of press release.

Happy B-Day To Cinema

Exactly 117 years ago, on December 28 1895, brothers Lumière made their first screening of very first short movie in Salon Indien du Grand Café, France. The movie was named Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory, with length of 50 seconds and 17 meters.

This day has been considered as the birth of Cinematography.

Here are some important dates (that might be interesting) in movie history:

• 1908-05-21 - 1st horror movie (Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde) premieres in Chicago
• 1927-10-06 - "Jazz Singer," 1st movie with a sound track, premieres (NYC)
• 1951-01-28 - "La Vie Commence Demain," which depicted artificial insemination & is the 1st X-rated movie, opened in London
• 1952-11-26 - 1st modern 3-D movie "Bwana Devil," premieres in Hollywood

Source: Google

SAG Award Nominations: the Road to Oscars

Screen Actors Guild announced its nominees in both, Motion Picture and TV categories. Generally, these nominations speak a lot about the Roads to Oscars and Golden Globe, as long as they match each mostly.

This year's nominations are surprising, in every nomination you could find at leas one jaw-dropping name that totally messes Oscar predictions up.

Best Ensemble in a Motion Picture

Argo | Les Miserables | Lincoln | Silver Linings Playbook | Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Probably the least surprising nominees, however I more imagined Moonrise Kingdom or Django Unchained instead of Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

Best Actor in a Motion Picture

Bradley Cooper in `Silver Linings Playbook` | Daniel D. Lewis in `Lincoln` | John Hawkes in `The Sessions` | Hugh Jackman in `Les Miserables` | Danzel Washington in `Flight`

Bradley's nod looks like "Whaat?". He plays good however reviews did not promise much. It is hard to imagine him in best actor top five, especially when Joaquin Phoenix's incredible performance in The Master is missing.

Best Actress in a Motion Picture

Jessica Chastain in `Zero Dark Thirty` | Marion Cotillard in `Rust and Bone` | Jennifer Lawrence in `Silver Linings Playbook` | Helen Mirren in `Hitchcock` | Naomi Watts in `The Impossible`

Helen Mirren? Hitchcock got terrible reviews. Critics did not like it much. Yeah, Helen was maybe the best part of whole show, but where is Quvenzhane Wallis (in Beasts of Southern Wild), she delivers so much emotional and beautiful performance, that I can't imagine Academy would miss it. However, Naomi is getting closer to Oscar's top five, as long SAG is not the only giving her mention.

Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture

Alan Arkin in `Argo` | Javier Bardem in `Skyfall` | Robert De Niro in `Silver Linings Playbook` | Philip Seymour Hoffman in `The Master` | Tommy Lee Jones in `Lincoln`

Alan, Tommgy, Philip and Robert were predictable, however only few people hoped to see Javier here. He did not get much recognition from critics. I expected to see in top five Matthew McConaughey (in Magic Mike) or Eddie Redmayne or Russel Crow (in Les Miserables). Hard to say who will make the nominee list in January at Oscars, but obviously Bardem is already one of the candidates.

Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture

Anne Hathaway in `Les Miserables` | Helen Hunt in `The Sessions` | Maggie Smith in `The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel` | Nicole Kidman in `The Paperboy` | Sally Field in `Lincoln`

Smith and Kidman did not look like jump over Amy Adams in `The Master`or Samantha Barks in `Les Miserables`. Will they make the Oscar nominations? Hard to say, Golden Globes will definitely say.

What about you? Did you expect all this or not?

AFI: Movies & TV Shows of the Year

American Film Institute has announced the winners of AFI Awards 2012, honoring this year's best motion pictures and television series. 

AFI AWARD Honorees are selected based on works which best advance the art of the moving image, enhance the rich cultural heritage of America’s art form, inspire audiences and artists alike, make a mark on American society and represent the year’s most outstanding achievements in film and television. AFI is the only national organization that honors the creative ensembles as a whole, acknowledging the collaborative nature of the art form.

AFI movie top ten list mostly looks like Oscar best picture front-runners' list, excluding The Master and including The Dark Knight Rises.

Motion Pictures

• Argo
• Beasts of Southern Wild
• The Dark Knight Rises
• Django Unchained
• Les Miserables
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• Moonrise Kingdom
• Silver Linings Playbook
• Zero Dark Thirty

Television Series

• American Horror Story: Asylum
• Breaking Bad
• Game of Thrones
• Girls
• Homeland
• Louie
• Mad Men
• Modern Family
• The Walking Dead

This list will probably somehow define the fate of winners for corresponding major award ceremonies. Modern Family already leads Golden Globe best Comedy Series nomination and Homeland hits Drama category.

P.S. Where the hell is Dexter?!

American Film Institute Awards 2012

Upcoming Movie Premieres

Most successful films are premiered by the end of the each year. Foreseeing the Oscar statistics, the award winning movies are being aired from late September to December. 

This year's most of probably best picture contestants will be shown in theaters during November and December. Here are some major film events for next three months:

           

See Updated Post

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News: Academy Changes Nomination

This year, Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Science has renamed Best Art Direction (Set Decoration) nomination to its original name Best Production Design.

For the 85th ceremony the Art Directors' Branch was renamed to Designers' Branch. So, Board of Governors were advised to officially give award for Best Production Design. In fact, this doesn't change much, as still Art Directors and Set Decorators will be awarded in this nomination.