Here’s a look at this week’s new Blu-ray releases:

• Badlands (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] – $26.86 (33% off)
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD + UltraViolet Digital Copy Combo Pack) – $27.99 (38% off)
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Blu-ray/DVD + UltraViolet Digital Copy Combo Pack) – $21.99 (39% off)
• Les Misérables (Two-Disc Combo Pack: Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy + UltraViolet) – $19.99 (43% off)
• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] – $31.99 (20% off)
• Rust and Bone [Blu-ray] – $24.99 (31% off)
• This Is 40 (Two-Disc Combo Pack: Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy + UltraViolet) – $19.99 (43% off)
• Zero Dark Thirty (Blu-ray/DVD Combo + UltraViolet Digital Copy) – $22.99 (44% off)

Hit the jump for details on the extras included on all the aforementioned releases.

Continuing on with our “Road to Oscar” feature, today we’re going to take a look at how the race for Best Actress played out over the past 12 months.  With the 85th Academy Awards taking place this coming Sunday, we figured this week would be a nice opportunity to reflect on how a number of Oscar categories got to where they are today.  Join us after the jump as we break down the race for Best Actress.

The Visual Effects Society has announced the nominees for the upcoming 11th Annual VES Awards.  This year’s major players include Life of Pi, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Prometheus, The Avengers, and Battleship, all of which landed nominations for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture.  The VES Awards also recognize visual effects work in more dramatic fare, singling out the impressive effects of films like Flight and The Impossible.  Duking it out for Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Feature will be the ridiculously impressive Richard Parker in Life of Pi, Hulk in The Avengers, and Gollum and Goblin King in The Hobbit.

Hit the jump to check out the full list of nominees.  The 11th Annual VES Awards will take place on February 5th.

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.

The 2013 awards race is in full swing, and what better way to spend the Thanksgiving holiday then to take a closer look at how the categories are shaping up thus far?  Over the next few days we’re providing a bit of an overview of what the state of the race looks like at this point in time.  Yesterday we ran down the contenders for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, and today we’ll be taking a look at the fiercely competitive categories for Best Actor and Best Actress.  Hit the jump to read on.

Jacques Audiard’s Rust and Bone alternates between so many different tones — from tragedy to romance to action to drama — without even the slightest trace of difficulty. It’s a film that’s impossible to quite get ahold of or predict just where it’s going next. And it’s a testament  to the cast (in particular Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts) that they are so deftly able to weave in between the jumps and changes in story. Marion Cotillard stars as Stephanie, a killer whale trainer, who after a freak accident, loses both her legs. But what could become an ‘Oh-pity-me’ melodrama instead becomes a story of a woman’s self-discovery and liberation.

In the following interview with Marion Cotillard, she discusses the difficulties (or lack thereof) in playing a double amputee, discovering her character while shooting, and her role in James Gray’s upcoming Nightingale.  Hit the jump to watch.

We have word that director Jacques Audiard’s film, Rust and Bone, has landed the top award at the 56th British Film Institute’s London Film Festival.  The picture stars Marion Cotillard (Inception) as a killer whale trainer who suffers a tragic accident and Matthias Schoenaerts (Bullhead) as single father who helps her in her recovery. Audiard’s last effort, A Prophet, was also graced with the festival’s top prize in 2009.  Hit the jump to see the trailer, poster and synopsis for Rust and Bone, which opens stateside in limited release starting November 23rd.

Let’s round up some posters, shall we?

• Sinister, a horror film from writer/director Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) and starring Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, Vincent D’Onofrio and Clare Foley, opens October 5th.
• Hotel Transylvania, featuring the voices of Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, David Spade and Steve Buscemi, opens September 28th.
• Rust and Bone, the mystery/drama from director Jacques Audiard (A Prophet) that stars Marion Cotillard (The Dark Knight Rises) and Matthias Schoenaerts (Bullhead), opens November 23rd.
• Gambit, which Michael Hoffman (One Fine Day) directs from a Coen Brothers script, stars Alan Rickman, Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz.  Gambit opens next year.

Hit the jump to see all the posters and synopses.

Studio Canal has released the UK trailer for Jacques Audiard‘s Rust and Bone.  The film stars Marion Cotillard as a killer whale trainer who suffers a horrible accident, but develops a bond with a man (Bullhead‘s Matthias Schoenaerts) who has recently been put in charge of his young son.  I’m a big fan of Audiard’s A Prophet and The Beat That My Heart Skipped, and I’m bummed that scheduling conflicts mean I’ll probably miss Rust and Bone at TIFF.  Hopefully, I’ll get another chance to see it soon because this trailer makes the film look terrific.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  Rust and Bone opens in the UK on November 2nd.

The line-up for this year’s Toronto International Film Festival has been announced and it is a doozy.  The festival will play host to some of the year’s biggest world premieres including Rian Johnson‘s Looper (which will be the festival’s opening night film), The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer‘s Cloud Atlas, Ben Affleck‘s Argo, David O. Russell‘s The Silver Linings Playbook, Derek Cianfrance‘s The Place Beyond the Pines, Joss Whedon‘s Much Ado About Nothing, Noah Baumbach‘s Frances Ha, and Neil Jordan‘s Byzantium.  Films making their International/North American debuts (which means that they’ll like show up at the Venice Film Festival first) include Terrence Malick‘s To the Wonder, Joe Wright‘s Anna Karenina, Robert Redford‘s The Company You Keep, and Billy Bob Thornton‘s Jayne Mansfield’s Car.

Hit the jump for the first wave of announced films.  The 2012 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 6 – 16th.

The full line-up for the 2012 Cannes Film Festival has been announced, and there are some heavy hitting debuts making their premieres.  As we’ve previously reported, Wes Anderson‘s Moonrise Kingdom will open the festival.  This year’s Cannes will also include Cosmopolis (directed by David Cronenberg), The Paperboy (from Precious director Lee Daniels), Lawless (from The Road director John Hillcoat), Killing Them Softly (from The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford director Andrew Dominik), Mud (from Take Shelter director Jeff Nichols), Rust & Bone (from A Prophet director Jacques Audiard) and On the Road (from The Motorcycle Diaries director Walter Salles).

Click on the corresponding link for more on each film, and hit the jump for the full line-up.  The 65th Cannes Film Festival runs from May 16 – 25th.

It looks like the Gus Van Sant-directed drama starring Matt Damon and John Krasinski now has a title and a distributor. Known as Promised Land, Focus Features and Participant Media had the winning bid for the project co-written by the two stars. Although it was originally meant to be Damon’s directorial debut, scheduling conflicts prevented it. Promised Land stars Damon as a sales executive whose arrival in a small town turns his life upside down. Krasinski will play a rival corporate executive.

Also acquired today by Sony Pictures Classics was the Marion Cotillard-starrer Rust & Bone by director Jacques Audiard (A Prophet). The project is an adaptation from a book of shot stories by Craig Davidson. Hit the jump to check out more from both projects.

We have a few more bits of casting news to bring you this afternoon. First up, Marion Cotillard is set to star in the Jacques Audiard (A Prophet) suspense/thriller Rust and Bone. Per Variety, Cotillard will join a cast that already includes Matthias Schoenarts, Celine Sallette and Bouli Lanners. While very few details about Rust and Bone are divulged, it is believed that the French film will be budgeted at around $22 million, making it one of the most expensive the French will offer this year. Adiard’s A Prophet co-writer, Thomas Bidegain, once again co-penned this latest project. The film is expected to begin a 14-week shoot this fall in the south of France and Belgium.

Next, veteran Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan has rounded out the cast of Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby adaptation. Variety reports that Bachchan will take on the role of a “shadowy gambler” named Meyer Wolfsheim. The actor will work alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Tobey Maguire, Isla Fisher and Gemma Ward on the pic which began filming in 3D this week.