"Up", ganadora de los premios Annie

Last year, the industry-voted Annie Awards appeared to have entered a peculiar grudge match with Pixar, as eventual Oscar-winner “WALL-E” came away empty-handed, while “Kung Fu Panda” swept the board.

Whether that curious outcome was the result of peer envy or simple fluke voting, however, the Annies appear to be back on board with Pixar, as “Up” took Best Feature and Best Director honors at last night’s ceremony. (Ironic, given that in this banner year for animation, a deviation from the expected would have been arguably better-received than last year’s shocker.

Still, the Annie voters spread the wealth, with “Coraline” and “The Princess and the Frog” dominating the technical categories. Interestingly, “Coraline” composer Bruno Coulais beat out Oscar frontrunner Michael Giacchino — nice to see that undervalued score getting a moment in the sun.

Finally, the many devotees of “Fantastic Mr. Fox” will be comforted that it took writing honors for Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach. Full list of feature winners after the cut.

Best Animated Feature: “Up”
Best Director: Pete Docter, “Up”
Best Screenplay: Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach, “Fantastic Mr. Fox”
Best Voice Acting: Jen Cody as Charlotte, “The Princess and the Frog”
Best Production Design: Tadahiro Uesugi, “Coraline”
Best Music: Bruno Coulais, “Coraline”
Best Character Design: Shane Prigmore, “Coraline”
Best Character Animation: Eric Goldberg, “The Princess and the Frog”
Best Animated Effects: James Mansfield, “The Princess and the Frog”
Best Storyboarding: Tom Owens, “Monsters vs. Aliens”

Look Out, Pixar, Here Comes ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ (The New York Times)

January 12, 2010

By BROOKS BARNES

LOS ANGELES — Figuring out which film will win the Academy Award for best animated feature is usually the easiest part of filling out a ballot for your Oscar pool. Go down the list of nominees — often only three, because so few make the cut — and find the one produced by Pixar. Circle it.

But this year, unexpectedly, animation is becoming a hotly contested race.

The biggest reason is “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” Wes Anderson’s quirky adaptation of the Roald Dahl novel. The film, from 20th Century Fox and the producer Scott Rudin, is soaking up a surprising amount of awards attention.

“Up,” Pixar’s 3-D flying-house adventure, dominated the multiplexes last May and seemed to have the animation Oscar sewn up as recently as a few weeks ago. And it’s still the front-runner. The movie industry cooed that “Up,” Pixar’s sophisticated 10th feature, was another artistic triumph. Critics agreed, with review-aggregation Web sites suggesting that the studio’s campaign slogan for the film — “The Best Reviewed Film of the Year” — was only a (very) slight exaggeration.

Then a fox snuck into Pixar’s henhouse.

“Fantastic Mr. Fox,” which features the vocal talents of George Clooney and Meryl Streep in a story about a dapper family man who can’t resist stealing chickens and cider, arrived in wide release on Nov. 25. Despite stratospheric reviews, the holiday rush and a soft box office performance — it cost just under $40 million to produce and sold $20 million in tickets —made an Oscar run seem like a long shot.

But “Up,” which has been estimated to cost $175 million and cruised to a $293 million gross in North America, lost two influential awards to “Fox.”

In a mid-December surprise, both the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association named “Fantastic Mr. Fox” the best animated movie of 2009. Similar awards from five other critics’ groups followed. The film is up for a Golden Globe on Sunday, as is “Up.”

“Nobody saw this coming,” said Jerry Beck, the author of 12 books on animation and an operator of the news blog CartoonBrew.com. “The animation in ‘Mr. Fox’ strikes some people as a bit funky, but the film is indisputably a piece of art — something that exhibits a really strong point of view from beginning to end.”

Many critics have been impressed that Mr. Anderson, whose other movies include “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001) and “Rushmore” (1998) is thriving in a genre entirely new to him. “Fantastic Mr. Fox” was made using stop-motion animation, a painstaking process involving handmade models.

“It’s as if Wes finally found the perfect style through which to channel all of his obsessions,” said Scott Foundas, a former film critic for LA Weekly and now an associate programmer at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. “You can really see the fingerprints.”

The producers of “Fantastic Mr. Fox” say they are just happy that there appears to be room at the awards podium for different styles of animation. “Up” was computer generated, or CG, in industry shorthand. Yet another contender, “The Princess and the Frog,” from Walt Disney Pictures, is a hand-drawn throwback to the heyday of the genre.

“ ‘Up’ is a brilliant movie, but the great thing that this year has shown us is that animation is more than just CG and 3-D,” Mr. Rudin said. With Mr. Anderson’s film, he added, “You feel like you’re being dropped into this perfect, handcrafted dollhouse, except that the dolls are George Clooney and Meryl Streep.”

The Oscar race is just hitting its stride, of course. Nominations will be announced on Feb. 2 and the awards given on March 7. In only the second time since the animated feature category was created in 2001, there will be five nominees. In recent years there have been only three. Rules state that a minimum of 16 films must be submitted to warrant five slots.

And “Up,” directed by Pete Docter, remains very much the lead contender for the best animated feature Oscar, a prize Pixar has won four times. “Up” has so far taken top animated honors from 14 awards groups, including the National Board of Review. It is expected to do well at the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards on Friday.

Many awards strategists consider “Up” a strong candidate for a best picture nomination, especially with that field expanded to 10 nominees this year. No animated movie has ever won in that category, and only one, “Beauty and the Beast,” has been nominated.

A spokesman for “Up” had no comment. An executive at Disney, which owns Pixar, said there were no concerns about competition from “Fantastic Mr. Fox” in the animation category, partly because the Los Angeles and New York critics’ groups have weakened as indicators. “It’s not even a contest,” said the executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not have clearance to speak publicly.

Even so, Disney and Pixar may have their hands full. Aside from the unexpected competition from “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” there is “Ponyo,” an odd but haunting film from Hayao Miyazaki, the Japanese anime master whose “Spirited Away” won in 2002. Other prominent contenders are Universal’s “Coraline” and Sony’s “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.”

There is a history of the academy recognizing the small and arty, awarding the top animation prize in 2005 to the stop-motion “Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit.” And the little-engine-that-could factor is against Pixar. “To an extent ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ is benefitting from being the underdog,” Mr. Foundas said. Liccy Dahl, Roald Dahl’s widow, said she was tickled that “Fantastic Mr. Fox” was succeeding on the awards trail. Mr. Anderson spent three weeks at her home in Buckinghamshire, England, working on the script, incorporating details like the kitchen floor and lamp shades into the production design.

“What I love about the film is the sense of humor — it’s so Wes Anderson,” she said.

A demure Mr. Anderson credited his creative team in a telephone interview, saying he was thrilled about the attention but that he never gave much thought to how the animation could serve his style.

“I was always just thinking about Roald Dahl,” he said. “How do we make this movie seem like it’s happening inside his imagination?”

Premios de la Crítica de los Estados Unidos: Florida, Houston, Detroit, Utah, Golden Satellites

Florida

Jason Reitman’s “Up In The Air” led the Florida Film Critics’ Association’s annual awards, taking best picture, director and actor honors. The complete list of winners is below.

Picture: Up In The Air
Actor: George Clooney, Up In The Air
Actress: Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, Precious
Director: Jason Reitman, Up In The Air
Screenplay: Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber, (500) Days of Summer
Cinematography: Mauro Fiore, Avatar
Foreign Language: Sin Nombre
Animated Feature: Up
Documentary: The Cove
Breakout: Gabourey Sidibe, Precious

Houston

Best Picture: “The Hurt Locker”
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”
Best Actor: George Clooney, “Up in the Air”
Best Actress: Carey Mulligan, “An Education”
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds”
Best Supporting Actress: Anna Kendrick, “Up in the Air”
Best Screenplay: Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner, “Up in the Air”
Best Animated Film: “Up”
Best Cinematography: Barry Ackroyd, “The Hurt Locker”
Best Documentary: “The Cove”
Best Foreign Film: “Sin Nombre”
Best Original Score: Michael Giacchino, “Up”
Best Original Song: Petey’s Song by Jarvis Cocker, Wes Anderson & Noah Baumbach, “Fantastic Mr. Fox”

Utah

Best Picture
Up in the Air
(runners-up: The Hurt Locker; Inglourious Basterds)

Best Achievement in Directing
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
(runner-up: John Hillcoat, The Road)

Best Male Lead Performance
Viggo Mortensen, The Road
(runner-up: Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker)

Best Female Lead Performance
Carey Mulligan, An Education
(runner-up: Maya Rudolph, Away We Go)

Best Male Supporting Performance
Christian McKay, Me and Orson Welles
(runner-up: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds)

Best Supporting Performance by an Actress
Mo’Nique, Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
(runner-up: Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air)

Best Screenplay
Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach, Fantastic Mr. Fox
(runners-up: Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, (500) Days of Summer; Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds)

Best Animated Feature
Fantastic Mr. Fox
(runner-up: Up)

Best Documentary Feature
The Cove
(runner-up: Anvil! The Story of Anvil)

Best Non-English Language Feature
Thirst
(runner-up: Sin Nombre)

Detroit

Best Film: “Up”
Best Director: Pete Docter, “Up”
Best Actor: Colin Firth, “A Single Man”
Best Actress: Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious”
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, “Precious”
Best Ensemble: “The Hangover”
Best Breakthrough Performance: Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious”

Golden Satellites

Motion Picture, Drama
The Hurt Locker

Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
Nine

Director
Kathryn Bigelow — The Hurt Locker

Actress In A Motion Picture, Drama
Shohreh Aghdashloo — The Stoning of Soraya M.

Actor In A Motion Picture, Drama
Jeremy Renner — The Hurt Locker

Actress In A Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
Meryl Streep — Julie & Julia

Actor In A Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
Michael Stuhlbarg — A Serious Man

Actress In A Supporting Role
Mo’nique — Precious

Actor In A Supporting Role
Christoph Waltz — Inglourious Basterds

Motion Picture, Foreign Language Film
The Maid Chile
Broken Embraces Spain (tie)

Screenplay, Original
Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber — (500) Days of Summer

Screenplay, Adapted
Geoffrey Fletcher — Precious

Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media
Fantastic Mr. Fox

Motion Picture, Documentary
Every Little Step

Original Score
Rolfe Kent Up in the Air

Original Song
“The Weary Kind” — Crazy Heart

Cinematography
Dion Beebe Nine

Visual Effects
2012

Film Editing
The Hurt Locker

Sound (Mixing & Editing)
2012

Art Direction & Production Design
A Single Man

Costume Design
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Nominaciones a los Globo de Oro

Best Motion Picture -- Drama
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Precious
Up in the Air

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture -- Drama
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabire Sadibe, Precious

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture -- Drama
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Tobey Maguire, Brothers

Best Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy
(500) Days of Summer
The Hangover
It's Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy
Sandra Bullock, The Proposal
Marion Cotillard, Nine
Julia Roberts, Duplicity
Meryl Streep, It's Complicated
Meryl Streep, Julie and Julia

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy
Matt Damon, The Informant
Daniel Day Lewis, Nine
Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes
Joseph Gordon Levitt, (500) Days of Summer
Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Mo-Nique, Precious
Julianne Moore, A Single Man
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Penelope Cruz, Nine

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Matt Damon, Invictus
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Christopher Waltz, Inglorious Basterds
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger

Best Animated Feature Film
Coraline
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
The Princess and the Frog
Up

Best Foreign Language Film
La nana
Baaria
Broken Embraces
A Prophet
The White Ribbon

Best Director -- Motion Picture
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglorious Basterds

Best Screenplay -- Motion Picture
Up in the Air
It's Complicated
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds

BEST SCORE
Michael Giacchino - "Up"
Marvin Hamlisch - "The Informant!"
James Horner - "Avatar"
Abel Korzeniowski - "A Single Man"
Karen O, Carter Burwell - "Where The Wild Things Are

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
"Cinema Italiano" from "Nine" - Music & Lyrics by: Maury Yeston
"I Want to Come Home" from "Everybody's Fine" - Music & Lyrics by: Paul McCartney
"I Will See You" from "Avatar" - Music by: James Horner, Simon Franglen; Lyrics by: James Horner, Simon Franglen, Kuk Harrell
"The Weary Kind" from "Crazy Heart" - Music & Lyrics by: Ryan Bingham, T Bone Burnett
"Winter" from "Brothers" - Music by: U2; Lyrics by: Bono

BFCA announces its nominees (Variety)

Weinstein Co. pics "Inglourious Basterds" and "Nine" each scored 10 nominations and will lead the charge at the upcoming Critics’ Choice Movie Awards.

Selected by the Broadcast Film Critics Assn., both films were also selected for best picture along with "Avatar," "An Education," "The Hurt Locker," "Invictus," "Precious," "A Serious Man," "Up" and "Up in the Air."

In the lead actor race, noms were handed out to Jeff Bridges for "Crazy Heart," George Clooney for "Up in the Air," Colin Firth for "A Single Man," Morgan Freeman for "Invictus," Viggo Mortensen for "The Road" and Jeremy Renner for "The Hurt Locker."

On the distaff side, lead actresses selected were Emily Blunt in "The Young Victoria," Sandra Bullock in "The Blind Side," Carey Mulligan in "An Education," Saoirse Ronan in "The Lovely Bones," Gabourey Sidibe in "Precious" and Meryl Streep in "Julie & Julia."

Directors tabbed were Kathryn Bigelow for "The Hurt Locker," James Cameron for "Avatar," Lee Daniels for "Precious," Clint Eastwood for "Invictus," Jason Reitman for "Up in the Air" and Quentin Tarantino for "Inglourious Basterds."

The org historically selects six noms for many of the major categories.

Following the 10 noms each for "Inglorious Basterds" and "Nine," "Avatar" — Cameron’s $300-plus million sci-fi epic from 20th Century Fox that opens Friday — landed nine noms.

The Critics’ Choice Movie Awards was, so far, the best kudo showing for Rob Marshall’s "Nine," which failed to make the American Film Institute top 10 list announced Sunday. Also from the film, Marion Cotillard was nominated for supporting actress, even though the Weinstein Co. has been pushing her in the lead category for the Oscar race. Academy Award voters are allowed to choose whatever category they think is most appropriate.

Sunday was a good day for "The Hurt Locker," which also picked up top pic prizes from the Los Angeles and Boston film critics. Bigelow was selected as best helmer by both groups as well.

The BFCA have undergone a major change for this year’s awards show. Org changed the name of its kudocast to the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards and moved the venue from the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium to the Hollywood Palladium. In addition, they added eight categories to make it more similar to the Oscars.

Show, hosted by Kristin Chenoweth, airs at 9 p.m. Jan. 15 and is currently in the final year of a pact with VH1. Cabler and sister net MTV simulcast red carpet coverage prior to the telecast.

Last year the BFCA was in line with the Oscars as both tabbed "Slumdog Millionaire" as top pic, as well director Danny Boyle and writer Simon Beaufoy.

BFCA is made up of 235 members representing TV, radio and online.

The full nomination list:

BEST PICTURE

"Avatar"

"An Education"

"The Hurt Locker"

"Inglourious Basterds"

"Invictus"

"Nine"

"Precious"

"A Serious Man"

"Up"

"Up In The Air"

BEST ACTOR

Jeff Bridges – "Crazy Heart"

George Clooney – "Up In The Air"

Colin Firth – "A Single Man"

Morgan Freeman – "Invictus"

Viggo Mortensen – "The Road"

Jeremy Renner – "The Hurt Locker"

BEST ACTRESS

Emily Blunt – "The Young Victoria"

Sandra Bullock – "The Blind Side"

Carey Mulligan – "An Education"

Saoirse Ronan – "The Lovely Bones"

Gabourey Sidibe – "Precious"

Meryl Streep – "Julie & Julia"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Matt Damon – "Invictus"

Woody Harrelson – "The Messenger"

Christian McKay – "Me And Orson Welles"

Alfred Molina – "An Education"

Stanley Tucci – "The Lovely Bones"

Christoph Waltz – "Inglourious Basterds"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Marion Cotillard – "Nine"

Vera Farmiga – "Up In The Air"

Anna Kendrick – "Up In The Air"

Mo’Nique – "Precious"

Julianne Moore – "A Single Man"

Samantha Morton – "The Messenger"

BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS

Jae Head – "The Blind Side"

Bailee Madison – "Brothers"

Max Records – "Where The Wild Things Are"

Saoirse Ronan – "The Lovely Bones"

Kodi Smit-McPhee – "The Road"

BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE

"Inglourious Basterds"

"Nine"

"Precious"

"Star Trek"

"Up in the Air"

BEST DIRECTING

Kathryn Bigelow – "The Hurt Locker"

James Cameron – "Avatar"

Lee Daniels – "Precious"

Clint Eastwood – "Invictus"

Jason Reitman – "Up In The Air"

Quentin Tarantino – "Inglourious Basterds"

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Mark Boal – "The Hurt Locker"

Joel Coen & Ethan Coen – "A Serious Man"

Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber – "(500) Days Of Summer"

Bob Peterson, Peter Docter – "Up"

Quentin Tarantino – "Inglourious Basterds"

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach – "Fantastic Mr. Fox"

Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell – "District 9"

Geoffrey Fletcher – "Precious"

Tom Ford, David Scearce – "A Single Man"

Nick Hornby – "An Education"

Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner – "Up In The Air"

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Barry Ackroyd – "The Hurt Locker"

Dion Beebe – "Nine"

Mauro Fiore – "Avatar"

Andrew Lesnie – "The Lovely Bones"

Robert Richardson – "Inglourious Basterds"

BEST ART DIRECTION

Dan Bishop – "A Single Man"

Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg – "Avatar"

John Myhre, Gordon Sim – "Nine"

Naomi Shohan, George De Titta, Jr. – "The Lovely Bones"

David Wasco, Sandy Reynolds Wasco – "Inglourious Basterds"

BEST EDITING

Dana E. Glauberman – "Up In The Air"

Sally Menke – "Inglourious Basterds"

Bob Murawski, Chris Innis – "The Hurt Locker"

Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua, James Cameron – "Avatar"

Claire Simpson, Wyatt Smith – "Nine"

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Colleen Atwood – "Nine"

Janet Patterson – "Bright Star"

Sandy Powell – "The Young Victoria"

Anna Sheppard – "Inglourious Basterds"

Casey Storm – "Where The Wild Things Are"

BEST MAKEUP

"Avatar"

"District 9"

"Nine"

"The Road"

"Star Trek"

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

"Avatar"

"District 9"

"The Lovely Bones"

"Star Trek"

"2012"

BEST SOUND

"Avatar"

"District 9"

"The Hurt Locker"

"Nine"

"Star Trek"

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

"Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs"

"Coraline"

"Fantastic Mr. Fox"

"Princess And The Frog"

"Up"

BEST ACTION MOVIE

"Avatar"

"District 9"

"The Hurt Locker"

"Inglourious Basterds"

"Star Trek

BEST COMEDY

"(500) Days Of Summer"

"The Hangover"

"It’s Complicated"

"The Proposal"

"Zombieland"

BEST PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION

"Gifted Hands"

"Grey Gardens"

"Into The Storm"

"Taking Chance"

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

"Broken Embraces"

"Coco Before Chanel"

"Red Cliff"

"Sin Nombre"

"The White Ribbon"

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

"Anvil"

"Capitalism: A Love Story"

"The Cove"

"Food, Inc."

"Michael Jackson’s This Is It"

BEST SONG

"All Is Love" – Karen O, Nick Zinner – "Where The Wild Things Are"

"Almost There" – Randy Newman – "The Princess And The Frog"

"Cinema Italiano" – Maury Yeston – "Nine"

"(I Want To) Come Home" – Paul McCartney – "Everybody’s Fine"

"The Weary Kind" – T Bone Burnett, Ryan Bingham – "Crazy Heart"

BEST SCORE

Michael Giacchino – "Up"

Marvin Hamlisch – "The Informant!"

Randy Newman – "The Princess and the Frog"

Karen O, Carter Burwell – "Where The Wild Things Are"

Hans Zimmer – "Sherlock Holmes"

'Hurt Locker,' 'Hangover,' 'Up in the Air' among AFI's top 10 of 2009 (Los Angeles Times)

It was a big day for “The Hurt Locker.” No sooner did the gripping drama revolving around bomb-diffusing soldiers in Iraq win best film of 2009 Sunday afternoon from the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn., the independent production was named one of the American Film Institute’s movies of the year.

The AFI Awards 2009 is an almanac that records the year’s “most outstanding achievements in film and television,” according to the organization. The AFI awards honor the creative ensembles in front of and behind the cameras.

Besides “The Hurt Locker,” AFI’s top films for 2009 are “Coraline,” “The Hangover,” “The Messenger,” “Precious,” “A Serious Man,” “A Single Man,” “Sugar,” “Up” and “Up in the Air.”

On the small-screen side, “The Big Bang Theory,” “Big Love,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Glee,” “Mad Men,” “Modern Family,” “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Party Down” and “True Blood” were chosen as the best of 2009.

The selections were made through a 13-person jury process involving scholars, film artists, critics and AFI trustees. Two juries — one for film and one for TV — met for two days of debate at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel. Among the film jurors were director Norman Jewison, Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (“Milk”), Leonard Maltin and Claudia Puig of USA Today.

Television jurors included writer-producer Neal Baer, Brian Lowry of Variety, writer-producer David Milch, actress CCH Pounder and John Shaffner, president of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

AFI will honor the creative ensembles at an invitation-only luncheon at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles on Jan. 15.

Las mejores del año, según The National Board of Review

Film: "Up in the Air"

Director: Clint Eastwood, "Invictus"

Actor: George Clooney, "Up in the Air"
Morgan Freeman, "Invictus"

Actress: Carey Mulligan, "An Education"

Supporting Actor: Woody Harrelson, "The Messenger"

Supporting Actress: Anna Kendrick, "Up in the Air"

Foreign Language Film: "A Prophet" (foto)

Documentary:"The Cove"

Animated Feature: "Up"

Ensemble Cast: "It's Complicated"

Breakthrough Performance by an Actor: Jeremy Renner, "The Hurt Locker"

Breakthrough Performance by an Actress: Gabourey Sidibe, "Precious"

Spotlight Award for Best Directorial Debut: Duncan Jones, "Moon"
Oren Moverman, "The Messenger"
Marc Webb, "(500) Days Of Summer"

Original Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen, A Serious Man

Adapted Screenplay: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air

Special Filmmaking Achievement Award: Wes Anderson, the Fantastic Mr. Fox

William K. Everson Film History Award: Jean Picker Firstenberg

NBR Freedom Of Expression: "Burma Vj: Reporting From A Closed Country"
"Invictus""The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellseberg and the Pentagon Papers

Ten Best Films (in alphabetical order)

• "An Education"
  
• "(500) Days Of Summer"
  
• "The Hurt Locker"
  
• "Inglourious Basterds"
  
• "Invictus"
  
• "The Messenger"
  
• "A Serious Man"
  
• "Star Trek"
  
• "Up"
  
• "Where the Wild Things Are"

Five Best Foreign-Language Films (in alphabetical order)

• "The Maid"
  
• "Revanche"
  
• "Song Of Sparrows"
  
• "Three Monkeys"
  
• "The White Ribbon"

Five Best Documentaries (in alphabetical order)

• "Burma VJ: Reporting From A Closed Country"
  
• "Crude"
  
• "Food, Inc."
  
• "Good Hair"
  
• "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers"

Top Ten Independent Films (in alphabetical order)

• "Amreeka"
  
• "District 9"
  
• "Goodbye Solo"
  
• "Humpday"
  
• "In the Loop"
  
• "Julia"
  
• "Me and Orson Welles"
  
• "Moon"
  
• "Sugar"
  
• "Two Lovers"

A heartfelt film within a film in 'Up' (Los Angeles Times)

The filmmakers' decision to include a four-minute montage tracing the back story of Carl Fredricksen and his wife was a bold stroke that enriched the entire movie.

By John Horn

It's among the most memorable -- and moving -- sequences in Pixar's new animated movie "Up": a four-minute, dialogue-free montage early in the film that traces the entire relationship between Carl Fredricksen and his wife, Ellie.

In encapsulating the couple's life together, the flashback sequence -- which Times film critic Kenneth Turan called "a small gem that will stay with you for a lifetime" -- includes a few issues rarely raised in a movie aimed at families, including a miscarriage, the failing health of the elderly, even death and bereavement.

"It's one of the things I am most proud of in the film," says "Up" director Pete Docter.

Docter and his "Up" collaborators always wanted to include the couple's back story. The sequence needed to answer critical narrative questions: Why would Carl Fredricksen, the grumpy old man voiced by actor Ed Asner, attach balloons to his house and float away if he might be leaving children behind? Why had the couple never made it to Paradise Falls? What was so critical about the homemade badge Carl pins on the Junior Wilderness Explorer, Russell? What little pleasures might constitute life's biggest moments?

In its earliest iteration, the montage looked as if it would last 20 minutes.

"You start with a ton of stuff and you pare down," Docter says. "And we took out everything that wasn't essential."

The decision to present the scene without the characters' talking came a bit later (The montage does include an orchestral score by composer Michael Giacchino).

In researching the film's story, Docter, co-director and co-screenwriter Bob Peterson and producer Jonas Rivera looked at a number of Super-8 film reels from family archives and often found that the silent images were more powerful because of what wasn't said.

"We're always looking in animation to do things without dialogue, to turn the sound off and still know what's going on," Peterson says.

Adds Docter: "It kind of comes to life in your own head more. For a long time, we had sound effects throughout the whole sequence, to sell certain things like the jars breaking and the tire popping. And in the final mix, we just took them all out and I think it works even better.

If you watch the scene closely, you also will notice that the color palette shifts to reflect the nature of Carl and Ellie's relationship. When they are young, the shades are sepia-toned, suggesting something from the 1930s. In the prime of their lives, the colors are richer -- vibrant greens and blues. "Hopefully it's not something the audience is even conscious of," Docter says.

The filmmakers wrestled with removing Ellie's miscarriage but felt the scene -- and the rest of the movie -- suffered without it.

"It's a pretty strong thing to see," Peterson says. "And we tried taking it out. But it didn't feel as textured."

"Up", de Pete Docter (The New York Times)

By Manohla Dargis

In its opening stretch the new Pixar movie “Up” flies high, borne aloft by a sense of creative flight and a flawlessly realized love story. Its on-screen and unlikely escape artist is Carl Fredricksen, a widower and former balloon salesman with a square head and a round nose that looks ready for honking. Voiced with appreciable impatience by Ed Asner, Carl isn’t your typical American animated hero. He’s 78, for starters, and the years have taken their toll on his lugubrious body and spirit, both of which seem solidly tethered to the ground. Even the two corners of his mouth point straight down. It’s as if he were sagging into the earth.

Eventually a bouquet of balloons sends Carl and his house soaring into the sky, where they go up, up and away and off to an adventure in South America with a portly child, some talking (and snarling and gourmet-cooking) dogs and an unexpected villain. Though the initial images of flight are wonderfully rendered — the house shudders and creaks and splinters and groans as it’s ripped from its foundation by the balloons — the movie remains bound by convention, despite even its modest 3-D depth. This has become the Pixar way. Passages of glorious imagination are invariably matched by stock characters and banal story choices, as each new movie becomes another manifestation of the movie-industry divide between art and the bottom line.

In “Up” that divide is evident between the early scenes, which tell Carl’s story with extraordinary tenderness and brilliant narrative economy, and the later scenes of him as a geriatric action hero. The movie opens with the young Carl enthusing over black-and-white newsreel images of his hero, a world-famous aviator and explorer, Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer). Shortly thereafter, Carl meets Ellie, a plucky, would-be adventurer who, a few edits later, becomes his beloved wife, an adult relationship that the director Pete Docter brilliantly compresses into some four wordless minutes during which the couple dream together, face crushing disappointment and grow happily old side by side. Like the opener of “Wall-E” and the critic’s Proustian reminiscence of childhood in “Ratatouille,” this is filmmaking at its purest.

The absence of words suggests that Mr. Docter and the co-director Bob Peterson, with whom he wrote the screenplay, are looking back to the silent era, as Andrew Stanton did with the Chaplinesque start to “Wall-E.” Even so, partly because “Up” includes a newsreel interlude, its marriage sequence also brings to mind the breakfast table in “Citizen Kane.” In this justly famous (talking) montage, Orson Welles shows the collapse of a marriage over a number of years through a series of images of Kane and his first wife seated across from each other at breakfast, another portrait of a marriage in miniature. As in their finest work, the Pixar filmmakers have created thrilling cinema simply by rifling through its history.

Those thrills begin to peter out after the boy, Russell (Jordan Nagai), inadvertently hitches a ride with Carl, forcing the old man to assume increasingly grandfatherly duties. But before that happens there are glories to savor, notably the scenes of Carl — having decided to head off on the kind of adventure Ellie and he always postponed — taking to the air. When the multihued balloons burst through the top of his wooden house it’s as if a thousand gloriously unfettered thoughts had bloomed above his similarly squared head. Especially lovely is the image of a little girl jumping in giddy delight as the house rises in front of her large picture window, the sunlight through the balloons daubing her room with bright color.

In time Carl and Russell, an irritant whose Botero proportions recall those of the human dirigibles in “Wall-E,” float to South America where they, the house and the movie come down to earth. Though Mr. Docter’s visual imagination shows no signs of strain here — the image of Carl stubbornly pulling his house, now tethered to his torso, could have come out of the illustrated Freud — the story grows progressively more formulaic. And cuter. Carl comes face to face with his childhood hero, Muntz, an eccentric with the dashing looks and frenetic energy of a younger Kirk Douglas. Muntz lives with a legion of talking dogs with which he has been hunting a rare bird whose gaudy plumage echoes the palette of Carl’s balloons.

The talking dogs are certainly a hoot, including the slobbering yellow furball Dug and a squeaky-voiced Doberman, Alpha (both Mr. Peterson), not to mention the dog in the kitchen and the one that pops open the Champagne. And there’s something to be said about the revelation that heroes might not be what you imagined, particularly in a children’s movie and particularly one released by Disney. (Muntz seems partly inspired by Charles Lindbergh at his most heroic and otherwise.) But much like Russell, the little boy with father problems, and much like Dug, the dog with master issues, the story starts to feel ingratiating enough to warrant a kick. O.K., O.K., not a kick, just some gently expressed regret.

“Up” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). A wee bit of gentle action and a climactic fight scene, but nothing inappropriate for any viewer of any age.

UP

Opens on Friday nationwide.

Directed by Pete Docter; co-directed by Bob Peterson; written by Mr. Docter and Mr. Peterson based on a story by Mr. Docter, Mr. Peterson and Tom McCarthy; director of photography, camera, Patrick Lin; director of photography, lighting, Jean-Claude Kalache; edited by Kevin Nolting; music by Michael Giacchino; production designer, Ricky Nierva; produced by Jonas Rivera; released by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes.

WITH THE VOICES OF: Ed Asner (Carl Fredricksen), Christopher Plummer (Charles Muntz), Jordan Nagai (Russell), Bob Peterson (Dug/Alpha), Delroy Lindo (Beta), Jerome Ranft (Gamma) and John Ratzenberger (Construction Foreman Tom).

"Up", de Pete Docter (Promedio: 6,18)

Rudiger Suchsland (Artechock, Germany) - 2
Dana Linssen (De Filmkrant, Holland) - 6
Luciano Monteagudo (Página/12, Argentina) - 7
Ernesto Garratt (El Mercurio, Chile) - 7
Diego Batlle (La Nación, Otroscines, Argentina) - 8
Pamela Bienzobas (Mabuse, Chile) - 5
Violeta Kovacsics (Lumiere, España) - 7
Cristina Nord (Taz, Germany) - 7
Manu Yáñez (Fotogramas, España) - 6
Markus Keuschnigg (Die Presse, Austria) - 7
Christoph Hüber (Die Presse, Austria) - 6

Promedio: 6,18

Si quieren ir a ver sólo los puntajes de las películas en el blog, vayan a la etiqueta Acceso a Puntajes (a la derecha) y estarán todos juntos, uno tras otro, además de ir renovándose permanentemente en tanto lleguen nuevos aportes.

"Up", de Pete Docter (Variety, ScreenDaily)

By TODD MCCARTHY

A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release of a Walt Disney Pictures presentation of a Pixar Animation Studios production. Produced by Jonas Rivera. Executive producers, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton. Directed by Pete Docter. Co-director, Bob Peterson. Screenplay, Peterson, Docter; story, Docter, Peterson, Tom McCarthy.

Voices:
Carl Fredericksen - Ed Asner
Charles Muntz - Christopher Plummer
Russell - Jordan Nagai
Dug - Bob Peterson
Beta - Delroy Lindo
Gamma - Jerome Ranft
Alpha - Bob Peterson
Construction Foreman Tom - John Ratzenberger


Depending on what you think of "Cars," Pixar makes it either 9½ out of 10 or 10 for 10 with "Up," a captivating odd-couple adventure that becomes funnier and more exciting as it flies along. Tale of an unlikely journey to uncharted geographic and emotional territory by an old codger and a young explorer could easily have been cloying, but instead proves disarming in its deep reserves of narrative imagination and surprise, as well as its poignant thematic balance of dreams deferred and dreams fulfilled. Lack of overtly fantastical elements might endow "Up" with a somewhat lower initial must-see factor than some summer releases. But like all of Pixar's features, this one will enjoy a rewardingly long ride in all venues and formats. Pete Docter's picture has the privilege of being the first animated film to open the Cannes Film Festival, on May 13.

The two leading men are 78 and 8 years old, and the age range of those who will appreciate the picture is even a bit wider than that. Like previous classic films about escape from the mundane, from "The Wizard of Oz" to "Wall-E" and many in between, "Up" is universal in its appeal. At the same time, it may be the most subtle Pixar production to date in its use of color schemes, shapes, proportions, scale, contrast and balance, factors highlighted by the application of 3-D, which will be available at many initial engagements.

The ghost of Chaplin hovered over "Wall-E," and although "Up" is a more talkative film, it also delves back into earlier eras for inspiration. The first thing on view is a mock '30s-style black-and-white Movietone newsreel documenting the exploits of maverick explorer Charles Muntz, who heads back to South America to redeem himself after a giant bird skeleton he presents in the U.S. is denounced as a fraud.

Not long after comes an exquisite interlude that, in less than five minutes, encapsulates the life-long love affair between Carl Fredericksen and his wife Ellie in a manner worthy of even the most poetic of silent-film directors. The two were brought together by their mutual enthusiasm for Muntz, and it remained Ellie's lifelong dream to emulate the adventurer and travel to Paradise Falls in South America.

But life has other plans, and Ellie must settle for a happy life with balloon-seller Carl (voiced by Ed Asner). When she dies, she leaves behind a scrapbook as well as a very grumpy widower, who retreats into self-enforced exile. With heavy-rimmed black glasses, thick white hair and eyebrows, bulbous nose, square jaw and a scrunched body that looks like it's been through a compactor, old Carl resembles a cross between Spencer Tracy and Walter Matthau at the ends of their careers. He wants no company, content to live out his days in the house he shared with Ellie, which becomes surrounded by giant construction projects.

Finally faced with eviction, Carl concocts a plan. In a surprising and brilliantly visual sequence, thousands of colored balloons hatch from behind the house, prying it from its foundation and carrying it skyward; Carl intends to fly it to South America, fulfilling Ellie's dream.

However, he's got an unplanned passenger in the form of Russell (Jordan Nagai), a roly-poly, eager-beaver Junior Wilderness Explorer who's previously tried to enlist the old goat's help to win him a badge. The trip goes uneventfully — no time wasted on navigational challenges — the better to quickly achieve the destination. The arrival is stunningly portrayed, with thick fog clearing to reveal bizarre rock formations atop a mesa adjacent to the falls (designs were inspired by Angel Falls, the world's highest, and the actual tepui mountains around the juncture of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana — the location of Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Lost World"). Carl and Russell quickly come upon the very sort of rare bird Muntz went back to find decades before, a brilliantly plumed, gawky 13-footer they name Kevin.

Kevin's antics throughout are so humorous and beautifully animated they would be at home in a "Looney Tunes" highlights reel, as would a breed of attack dogs commanded by Muntz himself (Christopher Plummer), who sends the canines in search of the elusive bird.

At just 89 minutes, "Up" is unusually short for a Pixar film, and the action climax comes on rapidly. One setpiece features the two old-timers, Carl and the swashbuckling Muntz, going mano a mano aboard the latter's spectacular, zeppelin-like flying ship, and numerous vertigo-producing shots show characters clinging for dear life.

Although the cliffhanger effects are augmented by 3-D projection, never do Docter ("Monsters, Inc.") and co-director Bob Peterson shove anything in the viewer's face just because of its 3-D potential. In fact, the film's overall loveliness presents a conceivable argument in favor of seeing it in 2-D: Even with the strongest possible projector bulbs, the 3-D glasses reduce the image's brightness by 20%. At the very least, the incentive for seeing "Up" in 3-D would seem less powerful than it is for other films.

Despite the sheer volume of incident and action required of any film that includes young kids as a major portion of its target audience, "Up" is an exceptionally refined picture; unlike so many animated films, it's not all about sensory bombardment and volume. As Pixar's process is increasingly analyzed, the more one appreciates the care that goes into the writing. The underlying carpentry here is so strong, it seems it would be hard to go too far wrong in the execution.

Unsurprisingly, no one puts a foot wrong here. Vocal performances, most importantly from Asner, Plummer and nonpro Nagai, exude a warm enthusiasm, and tech specifications could not be better. Michael Giacchino's full-bodied, traditional score is superlative, developing beautiful themes as it sweeps the action along on emotional waves.

Camera (Technicolor and Deluxe prints, 3-D), Patrick Lin; lighting, Jean-Claude Kalache; editor, Kevin Nolting; music, Michael Giacchino; production designer, Ricky Nierva; story supervisor, Ronnie Del Carmen; supervising technical director, Steve May; supervising animator, Scott Clark; sound designer (Dolby Digital/SDDS/DTS), Tom Myers; supervising sound editors, Michael Silvers, Myers; re-recording mixers, Michael Semanick, Myers; associate producer, Denise Ream; casting, Kevin Reher, Natalie Lyon. Reviewed at Disney Studios, Burbank, May 6, 2009. (In Cannes Film Festival — opener.) MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 89 MIN.

............................................................................................

By Mike Goodridge (Screendaily)

Dir: Pete Docter, US, 2009. 104mins

The tenth feature film from Pixar Animation Studios – and the first in which flesh-and-blood (non-superhero) humans are the key protagonists – Pete Docter’s Up is a marvel of a movie which will enchant cinemagoers around the world and remain a family favourite for decades to come. A highpoint of ingenuity and storytelling in the Pixar canon and indeed the animated form, this is a fitting opening to this year’s Cannes Film Festival; indeed it will be hard for any other film there to match the storytelling genius and gorgeous 3D imagery which Docter and his team have achieved.

Box office greatness is assured for all Pixar films these days, thanks to the strength of the brand combined with that of its partners at Disney. But, although all have been blockbusters, there’s a wide Pixar range: last year’s Wall-E, widely, for example, took $222.8m in the domestic market and $311m in international, but even that $535m total was $330m less than Finding Nemo in 2003. Quite where Up will fall in the range is anybody’s guess, although its strong emotional connection to audiences will likely drive it up into the higher end of the studio’s grossing scale.

Although there are plenty of animated films still to come this year — Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr Fox and Walt Disney title The Princess And The Frog among them — Up should be the strongest contender for the animated feature Oscar next March, and could even pitch for consideration in the best picture category as well.

Up has humour and action aplenty to enthrall children, but it should engage adults in equal quantities who will respond to its rich emotional content.

The prologue is a heartrending 10 minutes set in the 1930s, when we meet a young child named Carl Fredricksen who longs for the adventures played out by his hero, real-life explorer Charles Muntz, in exotic locations such as Paradise Falls in South America.

The young Carl makes friends with a feisty girl called Ellie who has a similar longing for adventure. The two form a bond which will see them getting married, trying (and failing) to have a baby and growing old together, until Ellie gets sick and dies. The film essentially begins with the 78-year-old Carl struggling with loneliness after her funeral.

Carl’s grief is exacerbated by the fact that developers are trying to get their hands on his city-centre house and ship him off to a retirement home. When he loses his temper with one of the construction crew, he is served with a court order to pack up and leave.

But on the night before Carl is due to move out of his home, he hatches a plot to pursue the adventure he never had. By inflating thousands of balloons, he lifts the house off its foundations and flies away.

Unbeknown to Carl, also on board is a persistent eight-year-old Wilderness Explorer called Russell who is desperate to do a service for Carl and win his assisting-the-elderly badge. The two of them head off to South America, land in Paradise Falls and begin an adventure which changes their lives and their outlooks.

Superbly voiced by Edward Asner, Carl is a new kind of hero for any animated film: a grumpy old man with rigidly square features — even square ears and square liver spots — and a bad back. His relationship with the neglected but hardy Russell (endearingly voiced by newcomer Nagai) grows slowly and authentically as they encounter various rare birds, packs of talking dogs and an ageing Charles Muntz (voiced by Plummer).

The colours of the film are ravishing and some of the compositions are painterly, while the 3D enhances the images without playing any in-your-face tricks on the audience. Michael Giacchino’s memorable music themes will be rattling around your head for hours after the film is over.

The Pixar canon is so impressive because of its insistence on story. Avoiding distracting star names in the voice cast or contemporary pop culture references, the films are timeless and eminently valuable assets in the Disney library, and they represent a golden era for animation which will go down in film history alongside the early Disney greats such as Snow White and Fantasia. With Toy Story 3 set for release next year and two Pixar films for 2011, one can only expect the consistency of quality to be sustained.

"Up", de Pixar, apertura de Cannes (Variety)

PARIS -- Pixar's 3-D toon, "Up," co-helmed by "Monsters, Inc." director Pete Docter, will open the 62nd Cannes Film Festival.

"Cannes has demonstrated for many years its interest in animation by selecting films from DreamWorks, as well as films that use animation differently like 'Persepolis' and 'Waltz With Bashir,' " said Thierry Fremaux, Cannes Film Festival's delegate general.

"It's audacious to open the festival with an animated film, but we're conscious of our duty : it's by stretching its boundaries that cinema remains universal."

Co-helmed and produced by Bob Peterson, "Up," about a 78-year-old who teams with a wilderness ranger to fight beasts and villains, will be the first toon ever to unspool in 3-D at the opening ceremony.

Recent toon contenders for the Palme d'Or have included "Shrek," "Over the Hedge," "Kung-Fu Panda" and "Waltz With Bashir."

"Up" will bow in the U.S. on May 29.

This year's edition of the Cannes film fest runs May 13-24.

Trailer Trash: Disney/Pixar's "Up"

"Up" (Disney/Pixar)