Oscar News

• The Artist led the Golden Globe nominations this week with 6 nominations. The nominations for Best Film-Drama are The Descendants, The Help, Hugo, The Ides of March, Moneyball and War Horse.
• The Help led the Screen Actors Guild nominations this week with 4 citations. It will compete against The Artist, Bridesmaids, The Descendants and Midnight in Paris for Best Cast.
• Several more critics associations announced their winners this week. Among the Best Film prize recipients were The Artist from Detroit, Indiana, Las Vegas and San Diego, The Descendants from Dallas-Ft. Worth and Houston, and The Tree of Life from San Francisco and Toronto. The Tree of Life also led the nominations from the Chicago Film Critics.
• The Academy released the shortlist this week of the 10 Live Action Short films that will compete for nominations in January.
• Seth Rogen will host the Independent Spirit Awards on February 25.

Review Round-Up

• Roman Polanski’s Carnage opened this weekend to lukewarm reviews, picking up only a 57 on Metacritic.

Oscar Box Office

• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy opened in 4 theatres last week with a whopping $77,000 per screen average, the third highest of the year.

Oscar Farewell

• Bert Schneider, who produced such Oscar winning films as Days of Heaven, Five Easy Pieces and The Last Picture Show, died this week at the age of 78. Schneider also won a Best Documentary Oscar for Hearts and Minds.