Michael R. Roskam’s Bullhead is a dark, quiet, and intense meditation on masculinity.  It is a movie that comes to the crossroads of power and sex, and explores if a man can have one if he’ll never have the other.  Despite relying on a bland crime-drama, Bullhead crafts a fascinating character study, and Matthias Schoenaerts powerful performance combined with Roskamn’s thoughtful, intelligent direction manages to turn frustration into captivation, and predictability into tragedy.

The nominations for the 84th Annual Academy Awards have finally been unveiled. Many of the categories have fallen in line just as most have predicted (I fared alright with my predictions, but not great), with Hugo scoring 11 nods, followed closely by The Artist with 10. The biggest surprises are War Horse and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close getting in for Best Picture, the exclusion of The Adventures of Tintin from Best Animated Feature, and The Tree of Life nabbing Best Picture and Best Director nods (hooray!). On the snub side of things, despite landing the most precursor critics awards of any other actor in the race thus far, Albert Brooks was denied a Best Supporting Actor nod for his stellar work in Drive (boo). Additionally, Tilda Swinton was overlooked for giving the best performance of the year in We Need to Talk About Kevin, and AMPAS has no love for Michael Fassbender‘s haunting work in Shame.

There’s still plenty to be happy about, as Gary Oldman has his first ever Oscar Nomination (yes, that’s right) and Melissa McCarthy is a Best Supporting Actress nominee. Hit the jump to check out the full list of nominees. The 84th Academy Awards will be presented by Billy Crystal on February 26th.

The Oscar countdown continues as AMPAS announced today that nine films have advanced in the Best Foreign Language Film category for the 84th Annual Academy Awards. Early favorite A Separation (Iran) made the cut, as did the modern dance documentary Pina (Germany). Shockingly, Zhang Yimou’s period epic The Flowers of War starring Christian Bale was left off the shortlist. The Chinese entry was the most expensive film in the country’s history, and many had pegged it as a shoo-in for a nomination. Also missing the cut were Mexico’s Miss Bala and the Finland dramedy Le Havre.

Voters will screen the nine shortlisted films this weekend, after which they’ll make their official selection. The five nominees will be announced alongside all the other Oscar nominees on Tuesday morning. The 84th Annual Academy Awards will be held on February 26th. Hit the jump to read the full press release.

It’s closing night at the 25^th edition of AFI FEST, Los Angeles’s longest running international film festival. Since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes this festival as a qualifier for the Short Films category for an Oscar, the winners at AFI FEST may be seen again on stage in just a few short months. AFI has released the winning films in both the Audience Award and Jury Award categories.

The “Breakthrough” section of the Audience awards, accompanied by a $5,000 prize, went to With Every Heartbeat by Alexandra-Therese Keining. Winners of the Jury Awards, and thus qualifiers for an Academy Award, include Live Action Grand Jury Prize Winner Frozen Stories by Grzegorz Jaroszuk and Animated Grand Jury Prize Winner The Eagleman Stag by Michael Please. Hit the jump to see the rest of the winners.

Well, folks, it’s over:  another year, another week-long cavalcade of awesome at Fantastic Fest.  This year’s lineup included some big name movies (Melancholia, Take Shelter), some smaller ones (You’re Next, Extraterrestrial), and some complete unknowns (Zombie Ass, A Boy and His Samurai), as well as some truly amazing, non-screening events.  Who won awards at this year’s Fantastic Fest, and what were the highlights of the week?  Find out after the jump, folks.