If you marveled at the seamlessness of Birdman, Rope, etc., you’ll love this.
Hush Money Sketch showed what happens during those long tracking shots that involve several people doing several different things and the production perhaps doesn’t get it.
If you were to imagine the perfect Oscar bait movie, it would probably involve some sort historical tragedy played by the best thespians of our time from all over the world, directed by the most revered helmers in this generation, and based on either a true story or a book that was based in a true story.
The two big winners at this year’s Oscars couldn’t be further from that stereotype. Birdman of (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and The Grand Budapest Hotel, together, took home 8 Oscars, and are both comedies that are shot from original screenplays set in fictional worlds both satirical and exquisitely delightful. Both do have fantastic writer/directors in Wes Anderson and Alejandro González iñárritu as well as fantastic casts led by Ralph Fiennes and Michael Keaton.
So, it’s an atypical year for comedy at The Oscars in that the genre was actually shown some appreciation rather than being relegated to the Best Writing sometimes.
In the end:
Birdman won Best Picture, Best Directing, Best Cinematography, and Best Writing-Original Screenplay.
The Grand Budapest Hotel won Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Music-Original Score, and Best Production Design
See the rest of the Oscars winners here.
Last year saw a big win for diversity and this year was for genre and hopefully the two will continue make headway at The Academy in the years to come.
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) won today at The Film Independent Spirit Awards, taking home two statues.
Best Feature and Best Male Lead for Michael Keaton were the two categories that the film received honors for just a few hours ago.
We’re not sure if this is a good omen or not for the several Oscar nominations that Birdman has, but we’re glad to see a comedy get some highly regarded recognition.
See the rest of The Spirit Awards winners here.
Comedy continues to fare quite well this awards season with movies like Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and Grand Budapest Hotel as well as shows like Transparent leading the way.
Last night The Directors Guild of America handed out their annual awards and Alejandro González Iñárritu took home the DGA Award for Feature Film and his work on Birdman while Jill Soloway took home the award for Comedy Series and her work on Transparent.
Hopefully, the ceiling for comedy getting notoriety during awards seasons is slowly cracking.
See the full list of DGA Awards winners for this year here.
The dominance of Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and The Grand Budapest Hotel this awards season has thankfully encouraged Fox Searchlight to push the two critical powerhouse films into more theaters.
Grand Budapest Hotel already had a great run in its limited theatrical run becoming the highest grossing film for Wes Anderson. With all the notoriety it has gotten over the last few weeks, it has just been rereleased into theaters in select cities including here in LA.
Birdman has just expanded to play in 450 theaters across the country and will double that on Jan. 23rd.
So, if you haven’t seen either in theaters, you’ll definitely have a chance to catch them now. Even if you’ve already caught a screening, go ahead and watch them again. They’re that good.
While some are still focusing extensively on the movies that got snubbed at The Oscars, The Critics’ Choice Awards definitely gave honors to some of those in that are making that snubbed list.
Birdman did take Best, Actor, Best Score, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Acting Ensemble, and Best Original Screenplay and Grand Budapest Hotel took Best Comedy, Best Art Direction, and Best Costume Design as the frontrunners.
However, Jenny Slate took home the trophy for Best Actress for her performance in Obvious Child.
The Guardians of the Galaxy and The LEGO Movie also got the awards for Best Action Movie and Best Animated Movie respectively.
So, we’re glad that The Critics’ Choice Movie Awards gave some distinction to folks that otherwise would be ignored by a certain Academy.
Get the full list of winners here.
The nominations for both The Oscars and The DGA Awards were just recently released and while it isn’t coming as much of a surprise, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and The Grand Budapest Hotel have kept on sweeping up honors left and right this awards season.
Already, both films have scored wins at The Golden Globes and have garnered nominations at The SAG Awards.
For The Oscars, Birdman is nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Cinematography, Best Directing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Best Original Screenplay.
The Grand Budapest Hotel racked up Best Picture, Best Score, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Directing, and Best Original Screenplay.
On top of that, Wes Anderson and Alejandro González Iñáritu both were nominated by The DGA Awards for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film.
That’s 9 Oscar nominations each for the pair, which, above all else, should be noteworthy because they both are comedies, especially in contrast to the rest of the nominated fare. Traditionally, comedy goes generally overlooked during awards season unless it’s in its own category, especially at The Oscars.
Maybe this genre glass ceiling has been broken with two comedy powerhouse frontrunners? We certainly hope so.
This year’s winners at The Golden Globes Awards were equally surprising and expected as awards season front runners Grand Budapest Hotel and Birdman took home trophies, but freshman TV series Transparent and Jane The Virgin also nabbed prizes in their categories.
The comedy winners of this year’s Golden Globes are:
Grand Budapest Hotel-Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Michael Keaton (Birdman)-Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Amy Adams (Big Eyes)-Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Birdman-Best Screenplay
Transparent-Best TV Series, Musical or Comedy
Jeffrey Tambor (Transparent)-Best Actor in a TV Series, Musical or Comedy
Gina Rodriguez (Jane The Virgin)-Best Actress in a TV Series, Musical or Comedy
Get the full list of winners here.
(via Variety)
Birdman and Grand Budapest Hotel have already been gathering up a lot of nominations at The Golden Globes and The SAG Awards and the 20th Annual Critics Choice Awards are no different. Between the two, they stacked 24 nominations in various categories, Birdman with 13 and Grand Budapest Hotel with 11.
There’s a weird genre fragmentation at The Critics’ Choice Awards that has gotten both films nominated for Best Picture and Best Comedy. Top Five, 22 Jump Street, St. Vincent, Chef, Neighbors, Obvious Child, The Skeleton Twins, Edge of Tomorrow, Inherent Vice, Guardians of the Galaxy, and The Lego Movie also all got nominations in Comedy and Action categories.
Despite how continually odd it is that awards put drama above everything, Birdman and Grand Budapest Hotel give some hope that there might be happening less and less in the future.
The Critics Choice Awards will be televised live at A&E 6PM PST on Jan. 15th and hosted by Michael Strahan.
As we said earlier today, we’re in the thick of awards seasons with nominations rolling in from all sides. The SAG Awards nominees were announced this week and just this morning, the announcement for the nominees of The 2015 Golden Globes was made.
Looking over the HFPA’s list of their favorites this year, It seems as if The Grand Budapest Hotel was straddling a lot of awards deadlines getting nominated in several awards last year and still gaining a lot of attention this year with four Golden Globe nominations. Birdman continues to get its due as comedy’s frontrunner for awards this season with 7 nominations and Transparent is starting its inevitable run for getting honors on the TV side with two.
You can see the rest of the comedy nominees below (Note: due to the HFPA’s insistence on genre category juxtaposition-i.e. “Musical or Comedy”-as well as the overall lack of comedy in general categories, we omitted listing certain nominees as they aren’t comedies)
Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
St. Vincent
Pride
Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Julianne Moore-Maps To The Stars
Amy Adams-Big Eyes
Helen Mirren-100 Foot Journey
Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Michael Keaton-Birdman
Bill Murray-St. Vincent
Ralph Fiennes-The Grand Budapest Hotel
Cristoph Waltz-Big Eyes
Joaquin Phoenix-Inherent Vice
Best Animated Feature Film
The LEGO Movie
How To Train Your Dragon 2
Big Hero 6
The Book of Life
The Boxtrolls
Best Foreign Language Film
Force Majeure (Turist)
Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
Emma Stone-Birdman
Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
Edward Norton-Birdman
Best Director-Motion Picture
Alejandro González Iñárritu-Birdman
Wes Anderson-The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Screenplay-Motion Picture
Wes Anderson-The Grand Budapest Hotel
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo-Birdman
Best Original Score
Antonio Sanchez-Birdman
Best TV Series, Musical or Comedy
Orange Is The New Black
Girls
Jane The Virgin
Transparent
Silicon Valley
Best Actress in a TV Series, Musical or Comedy
Julia Louis-Dreyfus-Veep
Edie Falco-Nurse Jackie
Gina Rodriguez-Jane The Virgin
Lena Dunham-Girls
Taylor Schilling-Orange Is The New Black
Best Actor in a TV Series, Musical or Comedy
Don Cheadle-House of Lies
William H. Macy-Shameless
Ricky Gervais-Derek
Jeffrey Tambor-Transparent
Louis C.K.-Louie
You can see the full list of 2015 Golden Globes nominees here and watch the ceremony on Jan. 11th, 2015 on NBC.
We’re in the thick of awards seasons and more and more nominations get announced every day. The nominees for The Screen Actors Guild Awards were revealed this week and we’re happy to hear that Birdman is getting its due with getting in four categories as well as the presence of perennial favorites Louie, Veep, and Modern Family.
Here are the rest of the comedy nominees for this year’s SAG Awards:
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Michael Keaton-Birdman
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Edward Norton-Birdman
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Emma Stone-Birdman
Naomi Watts-St. Vincent
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
Ty Burrell-Modern Family
Louis C.K.-Louie
William H. Macy-Shameless
Jim Parsons-The Big Bang Theory
Eric Stonesteer-Modern Family
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
Uzo Aduba-Orange Is The New Black
Julie Bowen-Modern Family
Edie Falco-Veep
Julia Louis-Dreyfus-Veep
Amy Poehler-Parks and Recreation
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
The Big Bang Theory
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Modern Family
Orange Is The New Black
Veep
Here is the list for the full nominees. The SAG Awards will be televised live on Sun. Jan. 25th on TNT/TBS.
The awards season for movies are coming closer with plenty of speculation as to who the front runners are. Well, some suspicions and pull quotes have been confirmed with Film Independent’s Spirit Awards announced the nominees for 2015.
If you’ve been to the theaters lately, you’ll probably guess that the tone of the awards fare is pretty bleak, but Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) garnered six Spirit Award nominations including Best Feature, Best Director, Best Actor (Michael Keaton), Best Supporting Actor (Edward Norton), Best Supporting Actress (Emma Stone), and Best Cinematographer (Emmanuel Lubezki).
The wonderful Jenny Slate also got a Best Actress nomination for her great performance in Obvious Child.
Everything else nominated was dramatic, gritty, heart wrenching, etc.
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s first foray into comedy with Birdman has been very well received in case you haven’t seen the Rotten Tomatoes score, recent TV spots, etc.
Almost seeming like a reward for all the folks that went and saw it, there has been a faux trailer made for an installment of the made-up movie franchise, Birdman, that Birdman’s Riggan Thompson, played exquisitely by Michael Keaton.
Enjoy watching the trailer for “Birdman Returns” like watching a trailer for 90s Jean Claude Van Damme movie after watching JCVD.
This year, Zach Galifianakis has covered quite a range going from doing an episode of his meta talk show Between Two Ferns with President Barack Obama to the upcoming, highly anticipated dark comedy Birdman from Alejandro González Iñárritu.
Zach gave a great inside look to both of those experiences during his interview at The Daily Show last night. Watch it here and beware if you’re a fan of Arby’s.
While Iñárritu’s Birdman starring Michael Keaton is making the rounds at film festivals around the world and building up buzz, Empire Magazine posted a picture of an actual action figure of the former superhero character that Keaton plays in the movie.
It talks and has a great warning on the box and is certainly not the type of action figure for kids that have yet to really grasp what a mid life crisis is. Thus far, we’re assuming this is just a limited edition promotional figurine, but we’d be really surprised if this wasn’t available to purchase when it rolls out into limited release on Oct. 17th.
(via Slashfilm)
The new trailer for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman already has us pretty excited for the movie. However, according to Jon Favreau, there’s something even more enticing about the movie.
The performing of a Broadway play as a last ditch attempt by a former action star to get back into the spotlight will also almost be all one shot. The spare cuts throughout the film are hidden making it seem like its been carefully composed into one continuous shot for the film’s duration, not unlike the beginning of Gravity.
We can’t wait to see Birdman, but we’ll have to wait until Oct. 17th when it hits theaters.
More hallucinations, more voices in the head, more Zach Galifianakis and more fighting are in the brand new trailer for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s new dark comedy Birdman starring Michael Keaton.
We’re more and more enticed by every trailer that’s been coming and we also like be reminded that the full title of the movie is Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).
Renowned director Alejandro González Iñárritu is making his first foray into comedy here in the States with Birdman. The film follows an attempt by a former action star played by Michael Keaton to revive his career via Broadway. The rest of the cast includes Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Amy Ryan, and Andrea Riseborough.
This teaser trailer only gives a taste of what is to come, but the end is pretty satisfying and makes us want a little more and then some of Birdman.
Comedy from Alejandro González Iñnáritu, Birdman, To Have Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Zach
A comedy from the director of Babel is certainly intriguing enough, but now with Michael Keaton starring with Emma Stone and Zach Galifianakis in addition to Edward Norton and Naomi Watts, Birdman will definitely be on our radars as it should be yours.