The 2013 Golden Globes have just wrapped up.  I only watched the last hour of the ceremony because the Globes no longer have their awards season power due to voting schedule changes.  Reading tweets and Facebook posts, it seems like it was a fairly entertaining show (keep an eye out for Jodie Foster‘s acceptance speech for her Lifetime Achievement Award).  As for the winners, they were very “Globes” in that they were more populist choices that are unlikely to have much bearing on the Oscars.  Argo may have had a good night at the Globes by winning Best Picture (Drama) and Best Director, but I still think Lincoln is the picture to beat when it comes to the Academy Awards, especially since Ben Affleck was snubbed for the Best Director Oscar nomination.

Hit the jump for the full list of winners.

The Broadcast Film Critics Association announced the winners of the 18th annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards tonight.  While Ben Affleck was noted as the lesser of the Best Director snubs when Oscar nominations were announced this morning, the BFCA named Affleck Best Director and his Argo Best Picture.  They feature genre awards—action, comedy, and sci-fi/horror all have their own Best Picture category—so there’s a bit of an “everybody gets a trophy” philosophy.  But that allowed Jennifer Lawrence to pick up two trophies: Best Actress in an Action Movie (The Hunger Games) and Best Actress in a Comedy (Silver Linings Playbook).  Silver Linings Playbook earned four total; the Best Comedy winner brought Lawrence’s co-star Bradley Cooper Best Actor in a Comedy and the rest of the cast Best Acting Ensemble.

The four primary acting awards went to major Oscar contenders Daniel Day-Lewis, Jessica Chastain, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Anne Hathaway.  But the BFCA also found room for Collider favorites Skyfall, Looper, and Cloud Atlas.  See the full list after the break.

The nominations for the 85th Academy Awards have been announced, and it’s quite a whirlwind of nominees.  As expected, Lincoln landed the most nominations with 12, followed with Ang Lee’s Life of Pi which nabbed 11.  The big story here, though, is the Best Director category.  Shockingly, only two (two!) of the DGA nominees for Best Director made the Oscar cut: Ang Lee and Steven Spielberg.  The rest of the category was filled out by Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild, David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook, and Michael Haneke for Amour.  It was almost guaranteed that Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow would be landing nominations for Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, respectively, but shockingly neither made the cut.  Apparently those films just directed themselves.  Based off today’s nominations, it now looks like it’s (surprisingly) down to Lincoln vs. Silver Linings Playbook for the big win.

Hit the jump to check out the list of nominees, and click here to check them against my predictions (somehow I predicted the Best Picture and Supporting Actor categories perfectly).  The 85th Academy Awards will take place on February 24th.

Opening in wide release this weekend is one of the best films of 2012: director Kathryn Bigelow’s drama about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, Zero Dark Thirty.  Loaded with amazing performances, an incredible script by Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker), and perfect direction, Zero Dark Thirty is sure to be nominated for a number of Oscars tomorrow morning.  In the film, Jessica Chastain plays a CIA operative spearheading the manhunt, and she stars alongside Kyle Chandler, Chris Pratt, Mark Strong, Scott Adkins, Joel Edgerton, and James Gandolfini.  For more on the film, read Matt’s review.

At the recent Los Angeles press day I got to speak with Jessica Chastain.  We talked about how she got involved in the project, her reaction to seeing the film, deleted scenes, the way things changed on set, and more.  Hit the jump for what she had to say.

At last, Oscar is upon us.  Back in November I shared a look at the early awards season race by way of our 2013 Oscar Preview articles, and now nearly two months later there’s still quite a bit up in the air.  This truly is one of the more exciting awards races in recent years, as 2012 is so stacked with quality that there are a surprising number of uncertainties this close to the Academy Awards ceremony.  Nevertheless, I am once again foolishly going to attempt to predict how the Oscar nominations will shake out when they’re announced tomorrow morning, January 10th.  Hit the jump to check out my predictions.

While I’d recommend going into Andrés Muschietti’s Mama as unspoiled as possible to get the most out of the film’s great scares, this new featurette does give viewers a better sense of what the picture is all about.  Featuring commentary from executive producer Guillermo del Toro and stars Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, the video gives a bit of insight into the nature of the two sisters (played by Megan Charpentier and Isabelle Nélisse), some real-world inspiration for the film and some info on the title character.  Unfortunately, it also spoils a few of the picture’s best jump moments and gives away, in my opinion, too much of the monstrously-designed title character.  Steer clear if you’re already locked in for Mama when it debuts on January 18th; hit the jump to check it out if you still need convincing.

Here’s a look at some new images from the following projects:

• From executive producer Guillermo del Toro comes Andres Muschietti’s directorial debut, Mama, a horror film starring Jessica Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Megan Charpentier and Isabelle Nélisse.
• The first official image from Dennis Dugan’s Grown Ups 2 features Salma Hayek’s boobs…oh, and Kevin James, Chris Rock, Maria Bello, David Spade and Adam Sandler.
• The first official image of Halley Berry from The Call, Brad Anderson’s thriller that was previously known as The Hive.  The picture also stars Abigail Breslin, Morris Chestnut and Michael Imperioli.

Hit the jump to check out all the new images.

Universal Pictures has released four new clips from Andrés Muschietti‘s horror film, Mama.  Produced by Guillermo Del Toro, the film stars Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as a couple who takes in two abandoned sisters discovered five years  after the mysterious death of their parents.  The couple gets more than they bargained for when it turns out a supernatural presence follows the girls into their new home.

Hit the jump to check out the clips.  The film also stars Megan Charpentier and Isabelle Nélisse.  Mama opens January 18th.

In past years for my “Best of” list, I’ve been able to provide fun categories like “Best Kill” and “Best Quotes”, but sadly, that won’t be happening this year.  I keep notes throughout the year, but in July, my hard drive crashed, and because I am a foolish person, I didn’t back up the notes to a separate drive.  However, I do have enough information to do the traditional categories as well as Breakthrough Performance, “A Very Good Year”, Best Villain, Best Surprises, Biggest Disappointments, and a new category, “Best Movie You Probably Missed This Year.”  One final note: unlike previous years, the film had to come out in 2012; festival-only flicks don’t count, so that’s why there’s no love for The Place Beyond the Pines on this year’s list.

Hit the jump to check out my miscellaneous “Best of 2012″ picks.  Be sure to keep checking back this week as we’ll be running Top 10 lists from Adam, Dave, and me.

Kathryn Bigelow‘s previous film, The Hurt Locker, opened with the statement, “war is a drug.”  Like The Hurt Locker and her earlier film K-19: The Widowmaker, Bigelow’s new picture, Zero Dark Thirty, deals with a deadly obsession created in wartime.  But unlike Hurt Locker and K-19, Zero Dark Thirty exists on a different battlefield—one of intelligence gathering, subterfuge, shady tactics, and misinformation.  It’s a battlefield that is arguably more lethal than what we’ve seen before.  It’s not where we place our troops.  It’s where we place our citizens, and every moment in a post-9/11 world is a time bomb waiting to explode.  In this world, Bigelow has crafted a thrilling and disturbing tale about how deeply an obsession can warp an individual, and how far we’re willing to go for the illusion of safety.

Zero Dark Thirty, the multifaceted story of the hunt to find Osama bin Laden, marks producer/director Kathryn Bigelow’s second collaboration with writer Mark Boal and her most ambitious production to date.  The film encompasses sweeping events spanning nearly a decade across multiple countries and involving a cast of hundreds.  From the naturalistic performances of an ensemble that includes Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Ehle, Mark Strong, Kyle Chandler, and Edgar Ramirez, to innovative cinematography in extreme low-light conditions, to the painstakingly layered art direction, every facet of the production became a proving ground for Bigelow to make living history come alive on screen.

At the film’s press day, Bigelow, Boal, Chastain and Clarke talked about the challenges of telling a story where the audience already knows the ending, how all the characters are based on real people, why the Department of Defense did not vet the script, why they included enhanced interrogation scenes, how Bigelow collaborated with her creative team on the look and tone of the film, and why the raid was the most logistically demanding scene.  Chastain also discussed how she approached Maya, the film’s strong central character, and revealed she’s now starring in The Heiress on Broadway.

Director Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty has stirred up quite a lot of awards buzz lately, thanks in part to Jessica Chastain’s performance. Chastain is front and center in this final trailer for the picture. There’s plenty of new footage to go around in addition to the reveal of more side-plots, since we already know how the operation to kill Osama bin Laden worked out. The added musical accompaniment of a children’s choir singing Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” puts this thing over the top; I wish it was in theaters right now.

Written by Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty also stars Kyle Chandler, Chris Pratt, Mark Strong, Scott Adkins, Joel Edgerton and James Gandolfini.  The film opens in limited release on December 19th, then expands nationwide on January 11th. Hit the jump to watch the powerful final trailer. 

The second major critics organization has announced its Best of 2012 winners, and director Kathryn Bigelow’s drama Zero Dark Thirty is once again the victor.  The National Board of Review named Zero Dark Thirty the best film of the year, also awarding Kathryn Bigelow with Best Director and Jessica Chastain with Best Actress.  Bradley Cooper bested heavyweight Daniel Day-Lewis for the Best Actor trophy for his work in Silver Linings Playbook, while Leonardo DiCaprio and Ann Dowd took home the supporting awards for Django Unchained and Compliance, respectively.  Other notable wins include Rian Johnson’s Looper script winning Best Original Screenplay (huzzah!) and Les Miserables being named Best Ensemble, with The Perks of Being a Wallflower (huzzah again!) and Argo making the Top 10 list.

It certainly looks like the critics will be rallying around Zero Dark Thirty this year, but as we’ve seen many times in the past, the critics’ pick doesn’t always match up with Oscar.  Since 2000, only two NBR Best Film winners have gone on to win the Oscar: No Country for Old Men and Slumdog Millionaire.  Other past NBR Best Film winners include Hugo, The Social Network, and Up in the Air.  Hit the jump for the full list of 2012′s honorees.

A few new images and a new clip from director Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty have landed online.  The film documents the decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden, focusing on a CIA analyst whose obsession with tracking the terrorist down eventually led to his assassination.  The drama has picked up plenty of praise since the first critics’ screenings took place last weekend, and judging by the amount of marketing material released in the past few days, Columbia Pictures is gunning for the Oscar win.

Hit the jump to check out the images and the clip, which shows SEAL Team Six taking off for their mission.  The film stars Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Kyle Chandler, Chris Pratt, Mark Strong, Scott Adkins, and James Gandolfini.  Zero Dark Thirty opens in limited release on December 19th and expands nationwide on January 11th.

Director Kathryn Bigelow’s drama about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, Zero Dark Thirty, has been a major topic of discussion in the past few days following its first positive critics screenings, and today the first clip from the film has been released.  We’ve heard plenty of great things about Jessica Chastain’s lead performance as a CIA analyst whose obsession with capturing bin Laden led to his eventual assassination, and this clip puts her promising work front and center.  We see a tense conversation between Chastain’s character and a CIA head played by Kyle Chandler as the two argue over what’s more important: thwarting terrorist cells on American soil or going after bin Laden.  It’s promising stuff, and I can’t wait to see the full film once it hits theaters.

Hit the jump to watch the clip.  The film also stars Chris Pratt, Mark Strong, Scott Adkins, Joel Edgerton, and James Gandolfini.  Zero Dark Thirty opens in limited release on December 19th, then expands nationwide on January 11th.