The 85th Annual Academy Awards announced its slew of nominations yesterday, but today the American Cinema Editors guild has released their nominations for excellence in editing for 2012.  Nominees for the 63rd Annual ACE Eddie Awards in the dramatic category include Zero Dark Thirty, Argo, Life of Pi, Lincoln, and Skyfall, while the comedy or musical category includes Best Picture hopeful Silver Linings Playbook and Seth MacFarlane’s R-rated comedy Ted.  Argo and Zero Dark Thirty seem like the formidable competition in the dramatic category given how expertly both films layer and manage tension throughout their running times, and coincidentally they both share one of the same editors: William Goldenberg.

Hit the jump to check out the full list of nominees in the dramatic, comedy or musical, and animated categories, as well as documentary and television categories.  The 63rd Annual ACE Eddie Awards will be held on February 16th.

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.

In anticipation of the announcement of the nominations for the 85th Academy Awards tomorrow morning, the American Society of Cinematographers has announced its list of nominees for outstanding achievement in cinematography.  Roger Deakins was singled out for his gorgeous work on this year’s Skyfall, as was Claudio Miranda for the breathtaking Life of Pi.  The list of nominees is rounded out by Seamus McGarvey for Anna Karenina, Danny Cohen for Les Miserables, and Janusz Kaminski for Lincoln.

Deakins has been nominated by the ASC for a total of 11 times now, winning for The Shawshank Redemption and The Man Who Wasn’t There.  Shockingly, he has never won an Academy Award despite being nominated for fantastic work like The Assassination of Jesse James, No Country for Old Men, and True Grit, but this could very well be his year.  Hit the jump to read the full press release, and click here to read my predictions for tomorrow’s Oscar nominations.  The ASC Awards will be held on February 10th.

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.

The Directors Guild of America has just announced their nominations for “Outstanding Direction in Feature Film” for the 65th Annual DGA Awards.  The nominees are as follows:

• Ben Affleck for Argo
• Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty
• Tom Hooper for Les Miserables
• Ang Lee for Life of Pi
• Steven Spielberg for Lincoln

These nominations, as well as the omission of certain other directors, carry certain implications heading into the Academy Awards contest.  Hit the jump for more DGA-related news.

As we head into the thick of awards season, we’re starting to see how the various guilds stack up with regards to the best of 2012 (the PGA nominations were announced yesterday).  The guilds are usually a good Oscar predictor as their voting bodies overlap significantly with the Academy’s voting body, and today we have a peek into the screenplay race by way of the nominations for the 2013 Writers Guild Awards.  The list includes some pleasant surprises like Rian Johnson’s brilliantly original script for Looper and Steven Chbosky’s touching adaptation of his own novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower, as well as expected candidates like The Master, Moonrise Kingdom, Zero Dark Thirty, and Lincoln.

Each year a number of screenplays are ruled ineligible for the WGA’s, and this year is no exception as Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, Behn Zeitlin and Lucy Alibar’s Beasts of the Southern Wild, and William Nicholson’s Les Miserables were all  ineligible for WGA consideration for various insignificant reasons.  Hit the jump to check out the full list of WGA nominations.  The 2013 Writers Guild Awards will be held on February 17th.

The nominations for the 2013 Producers Guild Awards have been announced.  The PGA’s are a fairly reliable predictor of the Academy Awards, as last year all but two eventual Best Picture nominees (The Tree of Life and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) were PGA nominees.  This year’s contenders include expected fare like Argo, Les Miserables, and Lincoln, indies such as Beasts of the Southern Wild and Moonrise Kingdom, and critical favorite Zero Dark Thirty.  The PGA’s are also fond of singling out one “popular” choice, and in this year’s case that film looks to be the excellent Skyfall

In addition to the feature films, the PGAs also announced the nominees in television.  Drama series nominees include the usual suspects like Homeland, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones, while the comedy category is filled out by 30 Rock, Louie, Modern Family, and for some reason The Big Bang Theory.  Notably absent is HBO’s Girls and NBC’s brilliant Parks and Recreation.  Hit the jump to check out the full list of film and television nominees.  The 24th Annual PGA Awards will be held on January 26th.

It’s January 1, 2013, which means that 2012 is now officially in the rear-view mirror.  Quality-wise, it was a stellar year in film, and with over a month to go before the Oscars there’s still an exciting air of unpredictability surrounding the awards contenders.  2012 wasn’t so shabby box office-wise either, and we thought today would be a nice time to take a look back at the year’s highest grossing films, lowest grossing films, and everything in between.  This year saw a few comedy surprises, the highest grossing Steven Spielberg drama in a long time, a couple of superhero megahits, and the glorious disaster that was Oogieloves.  Hit the jump to take a look at 2012’s Box Office in Review.

It became clear around September that putting together a Top 10 list this year was going to be incredibly difficult.  We’ve been provided with an embarrassment of riches throughout the year, and so the prospect of whittling it down to a list of my ten favorites proved daunting.  2012 seems destined to go down in history as “one of those years” like 1999, 1994, or 1977, where a large number of the year’s offerings will stand the test of time.  Though this list expresses what films I connected with most out of the past 12 months, there are at least 10 or 15 other movies that I also really enjoyed waiting just outside the wings.  If forced to pick my ten favorites from 2012, though, this is what I’ve come up with.  Hit the jump to take a look.

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.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has narrowed down the contenders for the Best Makeup and Hairstyling Oscar for the upcoming 85th Academy Awards.  The shortlist includes showy stuff like Hitchcock and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, along with the more subdued work like Looper, Lincoln, and Snow White and the Huntsman.  The one to watch for the win, though, is Rick Baker’s excellent makeup effects from Men in Black 3 as Baker has previously won this award 7 times, including for 1997′s Men in Black.  Notably left out of the race is Cloud Atlas, which put makeup to heavy use in order for its ensemble of actors to play multiple roles, switching race and gender.  Response to the film’s makeup work was fairly split, but I’m surprised it didn’t at least make the Oscar shortlist.

Hit the jump to check out the full list of all seven films that remain in competition for the Best Makeup and Hairstyling trophy.  The nominations for the Oscars will be announced on January 10th, followed by the ceremony on February 24th.

The nominations for the 2013 Golden Globes have been announced.  The Golden Globes are a “legitimate” award simply by virtue of A) They’ve been around for so long; B) Stars like attending because it’s a laid-back version of the Oscars where people can get an award, schmooze with other folks in Hollywood, and enjoy a nice meal.  The Golden Globes are doled out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which is a phony organization that can easily be swayed through pandering.

Most of the nominees are the usual suspects (especially in the TV categories), and there weren’t too many surprises among the film categories either.  Movies that have been doing well among critics organizations–Lincoln, Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, Silver Linings Playbook–all received their due.  The only surprise was the love shown towards Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, which racked up nominations in the Comedy/Musical category for Best Actor (Ewan McGregor), Best Actress (Emily Blunt), and Best Comedy/Musical.  With nominations in these categories, I’m surprised it didn’t pick up a nod for Best Supporting Actress for Kristin Scott Thomas, who has the movie’s standout performance.  Hit the jump for the full list of nominees.  The 70th Golden Globe Awards will air on NBC on January 13, 2013 at 8pm EST/5pm PST. [Update: We've updated the article with a promo video for the awards featuring hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.]

The nominations have been announced for the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.  We’ve been getting plenty of critics’ lists, but now we’re moving into real award territory.  Leading the pack among the films are Silver Linings Playbook, Les Miserables, and Lincoln with four nominations including Best Ensemble.  The most baffling inclusion is Nicole Kidman for Best Supporting Actress for The Paperboy, when clearly she should have been nominated for Best Actress to Piss on Zac Efron‘s Face.  As for the TV shows, Homeland leads with four nominations.

Hit the jump for the full list of nominees.  Winners will be announced on January 27th.

The nominations for the 2012 Critics Choice Awards have been announced.  Voted on by the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the awards ceremony is set to broadcast live on the CW on January 10, 2013 at 8pm EST.  While we learned in our latest episode of The Collision that the Critics Choice Awards aren’t as influential as other critics groups, they are still part of the awards season race.  The BFCA showed a lot of love towards Steven Spielberg‘s Lincoln, bestowing the film with a record-breaking 13 nominations.  Following close behind were Les Miserables and Silver Linings Playbook with 11 each.   I will say that I think it’s a little silly to have categories for “Best Action Movie”, “Best Comedy”, etc.

Hit the jump to check out the full list of nominees.

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has narrowed down the Best Original Score race…to 104 entries.  The Academy has shortlisted over 100 scores from 2012 that are eligible to compete for the gold on Oscar night, including three from Alexandre Desplat alone (Argo, Rise of the Guardians, and Zero Dark Thirty).  Every year there are a few scores that are ruled ineligible for one reason or another, and this year those ineligible films include The Bourne Legacy, Moonrise Kingdom, and Rust and Bone.

For my money, the standouts of 2012 were Beasts of the Southern Wild, Looper, and The Dark Knight Rises.  I have a feeling Howard Shore’s work on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will end up being a favorite of mine as well.  Hit the jump to check out the full list of 104 eligible scores, and leave thoughts on your personal favorites from 2012 in the comments section.  The nominations for the 85th Academy Awards will be announced on January 10th, followed by the ceremony on February 24th.