Creating the perfect mix of drama, comedy, romance, and powerful acting is often a theatrical recipe that stands just out of reach of most productions. Sometimes the drama and romance is there, but the comedic moments fall flat, or the actors give their all to a script that jumps from place to place, fostering few laughs and even fewer tears. Silver Linings Playbook, an Academy nominated film with an award-winning cast, gives audiences a full helping of laughs, tears, and embraces in amazing, yet equal measure, brought to the table by a stellar group of actors who not only made their characters lovable, but astonishingly believable.

Director David O. Russell’s follow-up to last year’s crowdpleasing awards contender Silver Linings Playbook now has a title.  Previously referred to as American Bullshit, the pic is now titled American Hustle per Box Office Mojo.  The story is based on a real-life undercover sting operation called “Abscam”, which was set up in the 1980s by a con artist working for the FBI who rooted out corruption in Congress.  The film boasts an incredible ensemble cast that includes a number of Russell regulars like Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, and Robert De Niro as well as some exciting Russell newcomers like Jeremy Renner, Louis C.K., Michael Pena, and Jack Huston.

Russell is currently in the middle of production on American Hustle in the New York City area, and we’ve already seen a number of wildly entertaining set photos of the cast done up in their 80s garb.  The film opens in limited release on December 13th before going wide on Christmas Day, and it’s safe to assume that American Hustle will be a serious player in this year’s awards race.

Filming is currently underway on David O. Russell‘s untitled “Abscam” movie (formerly titled “American Bullshit“).  The story is based on a real-life undercover sting operation called “Abscam”, which was set up in the 1980s by a con artist working for the FBI who rooted out corruption in Congress.  The first set photos have leaked online, and you can see the period clothing.  It’s either that or Christian Bale‘s character just won the Masters.

Hit the jump to check out the set photos.  The film also stars Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Elisabeth Rohm, Alessandro Nivola, and Louis CK.  The untitled “Abscam” movie opens in limited release on December 13th and goes wide on Christmas Day.

Sony Pictures has given Silver Linings Playbook director David O. Russell’s next film a prime awards season release date later this year.  The untitled project (formerly known as American Bullshit) will hit theaters in limited release on December 13th before going wide on Christmas Day.  The pic is based on a real-life undercover sting operation called Abscam, which was set up in the 1980s by a con artist working for the FBI who rooted out corruption in Congress.

The cast reads like a “Best Of” from Russell’s filmography, as Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale are set in the leads with Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence, Louis C.K., Jeremy Renner, and Alessandro Nivola (Face/Off) rounding out the ensemble.  Hit the jump for more.

Though the 85th Academy Awards are a mere day away, tonight an awards ceremony of a different sort took place to celebrate the best of independent film.  Unsurprisingly, Oscar player Silver Linings Playbook took home the most awards of the night with four wins, including Best Picture, Best Director for David O. Russell, Best Actress for Jennifer Lawrence, and Best Screenplay for Russell.  The crowdpleasing pic beat out the likes of Beasts of the Southern Wild and Moonrise Kingdom for the top prize, but John Hawkes was named Best Actor for his swell work in The Sessions.  The Best First Feature prize deservingly went to The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Hit the jump to read the full list of winners for the 2013 Independent Spirit Awards.

For proof that 2012 was a nutty year for awards contenders, look no further than the Best Director category.  Over the past few days, we’ve been looking back how the ebbs and flows of the past 12 months have shaped the awards race in a number of categories, and one of the most dynamic shifts came with Best Director.  After the jump, we run down how the race for Oscar glory progressed over the past few months to give us the five nominees who will be vying for the gold on Oscar Sunday.  Hit the jump to read on.

Director David O. Russell is plotting a third film with actress Jennifer Lawrence.  The two are currently making the awards rounds for Silver Linings Playbook, which netted Lawrence a Best Actress Oscar nomination and Russell a Best Director nomination.  We recently learned that Lawrence has joined the cast of Russell’s next film, an untitled drama about an undercover sting operation in the 1980s, and now THR reports that Russell is set to direct the Weinstein Company drama The Ends of the Earth with Jennifer Lawrence poised to star.

The pic is based on the lives of Ernest and Lydie Marland and centers on the controversial love affair between the oil baron/eventual Governor of Oklahoma and his adopted daughter and how their relationship lost Ernest everything he had.  Argo scribe Chris Terrio wrote the script, and Russell could very well tackle the pic after he wraps his next project.  That untitled drama starts shooting next month with a lead cast that includes Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, and Amy Adams—all of whom Russell has worked with in the past.

Jennifer Lawrence has a solid shot at winning the Best Actress Oscar later this month for her work in Silver Linings Playbook, and it looks like she’ll be reteaming with a couple of SLP vets sooner rather than later.  Deadline reports that Lawrence is set to join the already impressive cast for director David O. Russell’s next film, formerly titled American Bullshit.  The pic is based on a real-life undercover sting operation called Abscam, which was set up in the 1980s by a con artist working for the FBI who rooted out corruption in Congress.  Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale are set in the lead roles, and now Lawrence is poised to star as Bale’s wife.

Lawrence and Cooper actually already have another film together in the can, as the period thriller Serena will be released later this year.  Production on Russell’s Abscam film is set to begin this month with Jeremy Renner, Amy Adams, and Louis C.K. rounding out the cast.  Lawrence will then move on to filming the sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past, which will open in 2014.

Is an Argo Best Picture win now inevitable?  The 2013 British Academy of Film and Television Awards (BAFTA Awards) were handed out this evening, and director Ben Affleck’s thriller continued its domination of awards season by landing the Best Film and Best Director prizes.  The BAFTAs have always been an important bellwether for predicting Oscar, but they may be even more in tune with the Academy this year as a rule change allowed the entire BAFTA voting body to vote on every award (like the Oscars), instead of writers only voting for screenplay, actors only voting for acting, etc.

Les Miserables won the most BAFTAs of the night, taking home four trophies including Best Supporting Actress for Anne Hathaway (duh) and Best Production Design (over Anna Karenina? Really?).  The winners actually lined up pretty closely with my current Oscar predictions, though most were surprised to see David O. Russell take home the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar over Lincoln and Argo.  Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence were also overtaken in Best Actress by Emmanuel Riva for Amour, who has emerged as a strong possibility in a tough category.  Hit the jump for the full list of winners.

Director David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook picked up a number of Academy Award nominations the other day (including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Russell), and now the filmmaker has nabbed a pretty great actor for his next film. THR reports that Louis C.K. is in talks to join the cast of Russell’s next project, formerly titled American Bullshit.  The pic is based on a real-life undercover sting operation set up in the 1980s by a con artist working for the FBI who rooted out corruption in Congress.

C.K. is a welcome addition to an already stacked cast that includes Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, and Amy Adams.  Details regarding the comedian’s character are under wraps, but it’s said to be a key role.  Filming begins next month.  C.K. previously announced that his excellent FX series Louie won’t return until 2014, and he appears to be making good use of his hiatus.  He most recently wrapped a role in Woody Allen’s upcoming film Blue Jasmine.

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.

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.

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.

If you hadn’t already noticed, we’re knee-deep in Oscar season now.  Though many are put off by the awards race in general, one of the highlights of the year is always THR’s roundtable interviews with “the contenders.”  This year’s directors roundtable is really something, as the one-hour conversation involves Quentin Tarantino, Ben Affleck, Ang Lee, Tom Hooper, David O. Russell, and Gus Van Sant.  Though the entire interview is well worth watching, we figured our readers would be interested in a particular nugget from Tarantino in which he describes Death Proof as the “worst” film he’s ever made.

Hit the jump for more on that comment and to watch the full roundtable interview.

The nominations for the 2013 Independent Spirit Awards have been announced, and Oscar hopefuls Silver Linings Playbook and Moonrise Kingdom lead the pack.  Both films picked up nominations for Best Feature, Director, and Screenplay with Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper landing acting noms for SLP and Bruce Willis garnering a swell Best Supporting Actor nomination for his work in Moonrise Kingdom.  Beasts of the Southern Wild, Bernie, and Keep the Lights On round out the Best Feature nominees, while The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Safety Not Guaranteed were singled out for the Best First Feature award.  Also, Matthew McConaughey pulled double nominations for his stellar work in this year’s Magic Mike and Killer Joe, landing a Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor nod, respectively.  Notably shut out of the race entirely was Leos Carax‘s critically-lauded Holy Motors.

Hit the jump to check out the full list of nominations.  The winners of the 2013 Spirit Awards will be announced on Saturday, February 23, 2013.