17th "An Irish Boy" FILM Awards RECAP!!

01. Lincoln

02. Zero Dark Thirty

03. Amour

04. Beasts of the Southern Wild

05. Silver Linings Playbook

06. Anna Karenina

07. Moonrise Kingdom

08. Middle of Nowhere

09. Rust & Bone

10. Skyfall

P.S. Check out the list of 2012 films I've seen

OUTSTANDING PICTURE:

01. Lincoln (Produced by Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy)

02. Zero Dark Thirty (Produced by Kathryn Bigelow, Colin Wilson, Greg Shapiro, Mark Boal, Megan Ellison)

03. Amour (Produced by Margaret Ménégoz, Stefan Arndt, Veit Heiduschka, Michael Katz)

04. Beasts of the Southern Wild (Produced by Josh Penn, Dan Janvey, Michael Gottwald)

05. Silver Linings Playbook (Produced by Bruce Cohen, Donna Gigliotti)

06. Anna Karenina

07. Moonrise Kingdom

08. Middle of Nowhere

09. Rust & Bone

10. Skyfall

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR:

Paul Thomas Anderson for The Master

Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thiry

Ava DuVernay for Middle of Nowhere

Steven Spielberg for Lincoln

Joe Wright for Anna Karenina

OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTOR:

Bradley Cooper as Pat Solitano in "SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK"

Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln in "LINCOLN"

Richard Gere as Robert Miller in "ARBITRAGE"

John Hawkes as Mark O'Brien in "THE SESSIONS"

Jean-Louis Trintignant as Georges in "AMOUR"

OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTRESS:

Jessica Chastain as Maya in "ZERO DARK THIRTY"

Emayatzy Corinealdi as Ruby in "MIDDLE OF NOWHERE"

Marion Cotillard as Stéphanie in "RUST & BONE"

Emmanuelle Riva as Anne in "AMOUR"

Quvenzhane Wallis as Hushpuppy in "BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD"

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Michael Fassbender as David in "PROMETHEUS"

Dwight Henry as Wink in "BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD"

Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens in "LINCOLN"

Jude Law as Karenin in "ANNA KARENINA"

Matthew McConaughey as Dallas in "MAGIC MIKE" 

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln in "LINCOLN"

Nicole Kidman as Charlotte Bess in "THE PAPERBOY"

Diane Kruger as Marie-Anoinette, Queen of France in "FAREWELL, MY QUEEN"

Brit Marling as Maggie in "SOUND OF MY VOICE"

Lourraine Toussaint as Ruth in "MIDDLE OF NOWHERE"

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:

Michael Haneke for Amour

Rian Johnson for Looper

Wes Anderson for Moonrise Kingdom

Martin McDonaugh for Seven Psychopaths

Mark Boal for Zero Dark Thirty

OUTSTANDING ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

Screenplay by Tom Stoppard; Based on Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy for Anna Karenina

Screenplay by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin; Based on Juicy and Delicious by Lucy Alibar for Beasts of the Southern Wild

Screenplay by Tony Kushner; Based on Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin for Lincoln

Screenplay by Ben Lewin; Based on "On Seeing a Sex Surrogate," by Mark O'Brien, published in The Sun magazine for The Sessions

Screenplay by David O. Russell; Based on The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick for Silver Linings Playbook

OUTSTANDING ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:

Frankenweenie (Directed by Tim Burton)

It's Such a Beautiful Day (Directed by Don Hertzfeldt)

ParaNorman (Directed by Chris Butler and Sam Fall)

The Secret World of Arrietty (Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi )

Wreck-It Ralph (Directed by Rich Moore)

OUTSTANDING ART DIRECTION:

Production Design by Sarah Greenwood; Set Design by Katie Spencer for Anna Karenina

Production Design by Hugh Bateup & Uli Hanisch; Set Design by Rebecca Alleway & Peter Walpole for Cloud Atlas

Production Design by Rick Carter; Set Design by Jim Erickson & Peter T. Frank for Lincoln

Production Design by Adam Stockhausen; Set Design by Kris Moran for Moonrise Kingdom

Production Design by Jeremy Hindle; Set Design by Lisa Chugg for Zero Dark Thirty 

OUTSTANDING BREAKTHROUGH/DEBUT:

Emayatzy Corinealdi (Middle of Nowhere)

Dwight Henry (Beasts of the Southern Wild)

Tom Holland (The Impossible)

Alicia Vikander (A Royal Affair)

Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild)

OUSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY:

Seamus McGarvey for Anna Karenina

Ben Richardson for Beasts of the Southern Wild

Janusz Kaminski for Lincoln

Bradford Young for Middle of Nowhere

Roger Deakins for Skyfall

OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN:

Jacqueline Durran for Anna Karenina

Joanna Johnston for Lincoln

Mark Bridges for The Master

Eiko Ishioka for Mirror Mirror

Nabob Rasmussen for A Royal Affair 

OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARY:

The Central Park Five (Directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns & David McMahon)

How to Survive a Plague (Directed by David France)

Searching for Sugar Man (Directed by Malik Bendjelloul)

Side by Side (Directed by Christopher Kenneally)

The Queen of Versailles (Directed by Lauren Greenfield)

OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE:

The Avengers (Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Clark Gregg, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo)

Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, John Hawkes, Hal Holbrook, Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tim Blake Nelson, Gloria Reuben, James Spader, David Strathairn)

Magic Mike (Matt Bomer, Cody Horn, Joe Manganiello, Matthew McConaghey, Olivia Munn, Kevin Nash, Alex Pettyfer, Channing Tatum)

Moonrise Kingdom (Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, Bruce Willis)

Silver Linings Playbook (Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Anupam Kher, Jennifer Lawrence, John Ortiz, Julia Stiles, Chris Tucker, Jacki Weaver, Shead Whigham

OUSTANDING FILM EDITING:

Monika Willi for Amour

Melanie Oliver for Anna Karenina

Alexander Berner for Cloud Atlas

Michael Kahn for Lincoln

William Goldenberg & Dylan Tichenor for Zero Dark Thirty 

OUTSTANDING FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:

Amour (Directed by Michael Haneke)

Goodbye First Love (Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve)

The Raid: Redemption (Directed by Gareth Huw Evans)

A Royal Family (Directed by Nikolaj Arcel)

Rust & Bone (Directed by Jacques Audiard) 

OUTSTANDING MAKEUP:

Heike Merker, Daniel Parker & Jeremy Woodhead for Cloud Atlas

Bernard Floch for Holy Motors

Alessandro Bertolazzi, David Martí & Montse Ribé for The Impossible

Lisa Westcott & Julie Dartnell for Les Misérables

Lois Burwell & Kay Georgiou for Lincoln

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE:

Dario Marianelli for Anna Karenina

Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild

Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek & Tom Tykwer for Cloud Atlas

Jonny Greenwood for The Master

Alexandre Desplat for Zero Dark Thirty

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG:

"Who Did That to You", Django Unchained (Music and Lyrics by John Legend)

"Skyfall", Skyfall (Music and Lyrics by Adele and Paul Epworth)

"Breath of Life", Snow White and the Huntsman (Music by James Newton Howard; Lyrics by Florence Welch & Isabella Summers)

"One Wing", Sparkle (Music and Lyrics by R. Kelly)

"Dull Tool", This is 40 (Music and Lyrics by Fiona Apple) 

OUTSTANDING PERFORME OF THE YEAR:

Mark Duplass (Darling Companion, People Like Us, Safety Not Guarnteed, You Sister's Sister, Zero Dark Thirty)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Dark Knight Rises, Lincoln, Looper, Premium Rush)

Matthew McConaughey (Bernie, Killer Joe, Magic Mike, The Paperboy)

Susan Sarandon (Arbitrage, Cloud Atlas, Jeff Who Lives at Home, Robot & Frank)

Channing Tatum (10 Years, 21 Jump Street, Haywire, Magic Mike, The Vow)

OUTSTANDING SOUND EDITING:

Christopher Boyes & Frank E. Eulner for The Avengers

Oriol Tarragó for The Impossible

Jeremy Peirson for Looper

Per Hallberg & Karen Baker Landers for Skyfall

Paul N. J. Ottosson for Zero Dark Thirty

OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING:

Gregg Landaker, Eric Potter, Gary Rizzo & Carlos Solis for The Dark Knight Rises

Peter Glossop & Marc Orts for The Impossible

Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson & Simon Hayes for Les Misérables

Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell & Stuart Wilson for Skyfall

Paul N.J. Ottosson, Fred Peck III, James Simcik & Andy Stallabrass for Zero Dark Thirty

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS:

Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams & Dan Sudick for The Avengers

Dan Glass, Geoffrey Hancock & Stephane Ceretti for Cloud Atlas

Pau Costa, Félix Bergés & Sandra Hermida for The Impossible

Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan de Boer & Donald R. Elliott for Life of Pi

Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley & Martin Hill for Prometheus

MOST NOMINATIONS:

12 nominations: Lincoln

9 nominations: Zero Dark Thirty

8 nominations: Anna Karenina

6 nominations: Amour, Beasts of the Southern Wild

5 nominations: Cloud Atlas

4 nominations: The Impossible, Middle of Nowhere, Silver Linings Playbook, Skyfall

3 nominations: The Avengers, The Master, Moonrise Kingdom

2 nominations: Les Misérables, Looper, Magic Mike, Prometheus, A Royal Affair, Rust & Bone, The Sessions

1 nomination: Arbitrage, The Central Park Five, The Dark Knight Rises, Django Unchained, Farewell My Queen, Frankenweenie, Holy Motors, How to Survive a Plague, It's Such a Beautiful Day, Life of Pi, Mirror Mirror, The Paperboy, ParaNorman, Searching for Sugar Man, The Secret World of Arrietty, Seven Psychopaths, Side by Side, Snow White and the Huntsman, Sound of My Voice, Sparkle, This is 40, Wreck-It Ralph

MOST WINS:

7 wins: Lincoln

5 wins: Zero Dark Thirty

3 wins: Skyfall

2 wins: Anna Karenina

1 win: Amour, The Avengers, Beasts of the Southern Wild, How to Survive a Plague, ParaNorman

OUTSTANDING PICTURE (FINAL AWARD)

Amour (Produced by Margaret Ménégoz, Stefan Arndt, Veit Heiduschka, Michael Katz)

Beasts of the Southern Wild (Produced by Josh Penn, Dan Janvey, Michael Gottwald)

Lincoln (Produced by Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy)

Silver Linings Playbook (Produced by Bruce Cohen, Donna Gigliotti)

Zero Dark Thirty (Produced by Kathryn Bigelow, Colin Wilson, Greg Shapiro, Mark Boal, Megan Ellison)

AND THE WINNER IS…..

LINCOLN

Last Year’s Winner: A Separation

My choice for my favourite film of the year it came down to the winner and the runner up of Zero Dark Thirty. In the end the winner was Lincoln for how moving and epic it felt in the scenes that where very inclosed and tight. Through the amazing performances given by everyone in the cast, the writing that felt like high class theatre and also the restrain Spielberg applied to the film it was brilliant film making and Spielberg’s best film in his filmography for me. Spielberg’s “Lincoln” won the most awards with “Zero Dark Thirty” just one award behind winning five. I hope everyone enjoyed by choices and cannot wait till the oscars on Sunday.

OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTRESS

Jessica Chastain as Maya in “ZERO DARK THIRTY”

Emayatzy Corinealdi as Ruby in “MIDDLE OF NOWHERE”

Marion Cotillard as Stéphanie in “RUST & BONE”

Emmanuelle Riva as Anne in “AMOUR”

Quvenzhane Wallis as Hushpuppy in “BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD”

AND THE WINNER IS…..

JESSICA CHASTAIN AS MAYA IN “ZERO DARK THIRTY”

Last Year’s Winner: Olivia Colman as Hannah in “TYRANNOSAUR”

Chastain has made a breakthrough into cinema like I have never seen in my lifetime with 7 films last year and 3 this year. Her performance in this film finally has given her the lead role that is her best performance to date IMO. Her performance is not the most flashy in the category but it is the best in the category by far as we see the the development of the character through the years and her real moments of emotion come at the end when we see the women finally accomplishing the task. This is her first win and second consecutive nomination. This is the fifth win for Zero Dark Thirty with only one more award left.

OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTOR

Bradley Cooper as Pat Solitano in “SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK”

Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln in “LINCOLN”

Richard Gere as Robert Miller in “ARBITRAGE”

John Hawkes as Mark O’Brien in “THE SESSIONS”

Jean-Louis Trintignant as Georges in “AMOUR”

AND THE WINNER IS…..

DANIEL DAY-LEWIS AS ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN “LINCOLN”

Last Year’s Winner: Michael Fassbender as Brandon in “SHAME”

A year in advance I guessed this man would win my award because he is my favourite modern actor playing a role that has never really had a memorable performance until this certain performance. DDL showed the range of giving a more toned down performance making the man less of a landmark and more of a man you could talk to and laugh with. DDL has made another great performance that will be remembered for decades to come in the future. This is Daniel’s fifth individual nomination and third win in my personal awards (2002’s “Gangs of New York” and 2007’s “There Will Be Blood”)

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR

Paul Thomas Anderson for The Master

Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thiry

Ava DuVernay for Middle of Nowhere

Steven Spielberg for Lincoln

Joe Wright for Anna Karenina

AND THE WINNER IS…..

KATHRYN BIGELOW FOR ZERO DARK THIRTY

Last Year’s Winner: Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life

So sad that she was snubbed for the oscar but still I will give her the award for directing and even better piece of film making then the film that she won the oscar for 3 years ago. Bigelow is the one of the best working directors (male or female) and her work on this film especially in the raid scenes where the sequence is all about the direction in the silence of the scene. This is Bigelow’s second nomination (first in 2009 for The Hurt Locker) and her first win in the category.

OUTSTANDING PERFORMER OF THE YEAR

Mark Duplass (Darling Companion, People Like Us, Safety Not Guarnteed, You Sister’s Sister, Zero Dark Thirty)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Dark Knight Rises, Lincoln, Looper, Premium Rush)

Matthew McConaughey (Bernie, Killer Joe, Magic Mike, The Paperboy)

Susan Sarandon (Arbitrage, Cloud Atlas, Jeff Who Lives at Home, Robot & Frank)

Channing Tatum (10 Years, 21 Jump Street, Haywire, Magic Mike, The Vow)

AND THE WINNER IS…..

MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY

Last Year’s Winner: Jessica Chastain (Coriolanus, The Debt, The Help, Take Shelter, Texas Killing Fields, The Tree of Life)

I will be the first to admit that for over a decade I have hated McConaughey like most people but when I saw him in The Lincoln Lawyer last year my interest in his acting skills began to be more positive and then in his four films released this year I just had a fun time watching him in nearly everyone of them. From his smart comedic turn in Magic Mike to his dark turn in Killer Joe and two smaller roles in the comedy Bernie and bad movie The Paperboy. Looking at his career on the horizon it looks like he has some more strong roles coming up.

OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE

The Avengers (Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Clark Gregg, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo)

Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, John Hawkes, Hal Holbrook, Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tim Blake Nelson, Gloria Reuben, James Spader, David Strathairn)

Magic Mike (Matt Bomer, Cody Horn, Joe Manganiello, Matthew McConaghey, Olivia Munn, Kevin Nash, Alex Pettyfer, Channing Tatum)

Moonrise Kingdom (Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, Bruce Willis)

Silver Linings Playbook (Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Anupam Kher, Jennifer Lawrence, John Ortiz, Julia Stiles, Chris Tucker, Jacki Weaver, Shead Whigham)

AND THE WINNER IS…..

LINCOLN

Last Year’s Winner: The Help

Acting Ensemble’s are always about casts that no matter how big are able to give nearly everyone sufficient arts that all play well off each other. Lincoln has a massive cast consisting of character actors, TV actors and film stars but the level of talent no matter how big the part is the same throughout even to the actors with just one scene (Adam Driver) to the main leads of the film (Daniel Day-Lewis). This is the fourth award for Lincoln so far with it only being eligible for more awards (Director, Lead Actor and Picture) the question is will it win the most this year?

OUTSTANDING BREAKTHROUGH/DEBUT

Emayatzy Corinealdi (Middle of Nowhere)

Dwight Henry (Beasts of the Southern Wild)

Tom Holland (The Impossible)

Alicia Vikander (A Royal Affair)

Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild)

AND THE WINNER IS…..

QUVENZHANE WALLIS (BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD)

Last Year’s Winner: Jessica Chastain (Coriolanus, The Debt, The Help, Take Shelter, Texas Killing Fields, The Tree of Life)

When Little Q burst onto my screen when I saw the film a couple of months ago I felt very much affected by the fact a girl at the age of 5 or 6 could give a performance as good as anything that I have seen this year. Her performance is more then the voiceover as she must deal with some tough emotions for someone as young as she is. A non actor before the movie makes for an even greater cinderella story.

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Michael Haneke for Amour

Rian Johnson for Looper

Wes Anderson for Moonrise Kingdom

Martin McDonaugh for Seven Psychopaths

Mark Boal for Zero Dark Thirty

AND THE WINNER IS…..

MARK BOAL FOR ZERO DARK THIRTY

Last Year’s Winner: Annie Momolo and Kristen Wiig for Bridesmaids

From it’s depiction of true events to it’s depiction of the inner mind of this women who spent most of her life focused on this one man. I disagreed a lot with Mark Boal winning the oscar three years ago but this year it makes me sad that he has no chance of winning for a script that is much better in vision and as a completed piece. From a women’s point of view written by a man is hard but Boal did such a brilliant job with this script. This is his first win and nomination in this category. Boals win makes it three wins for Zero Dark Thirty so far in my awards.

OUTSTANDING ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Screenplay by Tom Stoppard; Based on Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy for Anna Karenina

Screenplay by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin; Based on Juicy and Delicious by Lucy Alibar for Beasts of the Southern Wild

Screenplay by Tony Kushner; Based on Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin for Lincoln

Screenplay by Ben Lewin; Based on “On Seeing a Sex Surrogate,” by Mark O’Brien, published in The Sun magazine for The Sessions

Screenplay by David O. Russell; Based on The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick for Silver Linings Playbook

AND THE WINNER IS…..

SCREENPLAY BY TONY KUSHNER; BASED ON TEAM OF RIVALS: THE POLITICIAL GENIUS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN BY DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN, LINCOLN

Last Year’s Winner: Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin; Story by Stan Chervin; Based on the Novel Moneyball by Michael Lewis, Moneyball

So many wonderful scenes from the many moving speech’s given by Abraham Lincoln to the inner turmoil of home life in the Lincoln home to the rousing and inspiring scenes of political talk set in the house of representatives. All was written by Tony Kushner and he made all of those move so well due to his rich dialogue both performed and setting up the chain of events in the film. This is Kushner’s second nomination in this category after his previous nomination seven years ago when he also worked on Spielberg’s Munich. Very modern feeling to the story but by using these historical figures Kushner has written a screenplay that should really be studied and talked about for years to come.

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG

“Who Did That to You”, Django Unchained (Music and Lyrics by John Legend)

“Skyfall”, Skyfall (Music and Lyrics by Adele and Paul Epworth)

“Breath of Life”, Snow White and the Huntsman (Music by James Newton Howard; Lyrics by Florence Welch & Isabella Summers)

“One Wing”, Sparkle (Music and Lyrics by R. Kelly)

“Dull Tool”, This is 40 (Music and Lyrics by Fiona Apple)

AND THE WINNER IS…..

“SKYFALL”, SKYFALL (MUSIC AND LYRICS BY ADELE AND PAUL EPWORTH)

Last Year’s Winner: “Lay Your Head Down”, Albert Nobbs (Music by Brian Byrne, Lyrics by Glenn Close)

An easy winner in this category for me. Just when the bond series had not produced a classic tune in steps world wide sensation Adele to take it over and create a song that is one of the best of the series. From the familiar tones of the the bond theme to the new spin done by Adele and her producer Paul Epworth. This is her first film nomination and it’s such an amazing song that I do not think she can do any better. All of bond’s allure is in the song as we hear Adele sing the words she wrote.

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE

Dario Marianelli for Anna Karenina

Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild

Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek & Tom Tykwer for Cloud Atlas

Jonny Greenwood for The Master

Alexandre Desplat for Zero Dark Thirty

AND THE WINNER IS…..

DAN ROMER & BENH ZEITLIN FOR BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD

Last Year’s Winner: The Chemical Brothers for Hanna

A score that is both fun and exploration of this young character of Hushpuppy was a hard thing to do but the two composers pulled off a tremendous job at tackling this hard work. The score moves with such ease as we explore the life’s of these people and all their surroundings. Composed by director/writer Benh Zeitlin and Dan Romer they both share their first win and nomination in any category of my awards so far.

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR

Michael Fassbender as David in “PROMETHEUS”

Dwight Henry as Wink in “BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD”

Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens in “LINCOLN”

Jude Law as Karenin in “ANNA KARENINA”

Matthew McConaughey as Dallas in “MAGIC MIKE”

AND THE WINNER IS…..

TOMMY LEE JONES AS THADDEUS STEVENS IN “LINCOLN”

Last Year’s Winner: Christopher Plummer as Hal Fields in “BEGINNERS”

This is the first win for Tommy Lee Jones on his first individual nomination for his work in Lincoln.

Jones has lately become known for playing the old & angry man but while the character of Thaddeus Stevens he played in Lincoln could have been that type of role, Jones just brings some of his best acting in years to the role that while with a great year for supporting males he stood out as having many of the heartfelt moments of the film such as the surprise of his character at the end of the film which only made me fall even more in love with the performance and like every actor in the film Jones mastered the hard dialogue provided by Kushner and this performance by Jones makes it one of his career best up there with the his work in JFK to give an example.

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS

Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams & Dan Sudick for The Avengers

Dan Glass, Geoffrey Hancock & Stephane Ceretti for Cloud Atlas

Pau Costa, Félix Bergés & Sandra Hermida for The Impossible

Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan de Boer & Donald R. Elliott for Life of Pi

Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley & Martin Hill for Prometheus

AND THE WINNER IS…..

JANEK SIRRS, JEFF WHITE, GUY WILLIAMS & DAN SUDICK FOR THE AVENGERS

Last Year’s Winner: Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White & Daniel Barrett for Rise of the Planet of the Apes

This is the second win/third nomination for Janek Sirrs, first win/nomination for Jeff White & Guy Williams and first win/third nomination Dan Sudick. They have won creating the visual effects for The Avengers.

Big blockbusters that come out nowadays do not inspire much excitement but with the release of The Avengers some of that excitement of watching a film like this during summer was brought back as everything about the film just was great. This award is for visual effects and as a big superhero film with different types it called for some great visual effects especially the final action set piece of the film that moved so well even if most of the power driving the scene was this visual effects that never felt messy or out of place feeling well put together.

OUTSTANDING ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Frankenweenie (Directed by Tim Burton)

It’s Such a Beautiful Day (Directed by Don Hertzfeldt)

ParaNorman (Directed by Chris Butler and Sam Fall)

The Secret World of Arrietty (Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi)

Wreck-It Ralph (Directed by Rich Moore)

AND THE WINNER IS…..

PARANORMAN (DIRECTED BY CHRIS BUTLER & SAM FALL)

Last Year’s Winner: The Adventures of Tintin (Directed by Steven Spielberg)

These are the first wins and nominations for Chris Butler & Sam Fall.

When animation is done in the style of stop animation lately is has been average but this year seemed like a come back and while Frankenweenie was nice enough to be nominated ParaNorman was the clear standout for the dark take it took but also mixing some dark humour near the start but not only was the film brilliant it’s animation but also this relatable story told through the eyes of a young awkward boy with some problems seeing the dead making it like a funny Sixth Sense.