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It was an early Sunday morning for Ryan Reynolds and the members of the HFPA to sit down in the tent of one of the many festival sponsors and talk about his new film Mississippi Grind. The Canadian actor flew in from Westchester, New York, where he left wife Blake Lively and baby daughter Violet for a short trip to promote the film here.

The title of Liz Garbus’ fine documentary on Nina Simone is taken from an article on the singer written by Maya Angelou but is a question that many might ask about the life and career one of modern American music’s brightest and most enigmatic stars.  Born the sixth child of a North Carolina preacher in 1931, Nina Simone studied from an early age to become “the first black female classically trained concert pianist” and subsequently rose to fame as one of the most original and incisive interpreters of the jazz, blues and soul canon.

Last weekend’s box office narrative, in the U. S.

The 21st Annual SAG Awards were presented at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, January 25, 2015. Here are the nominees and winners (marked in bold): Theatrical Motion Pictures Outstanding Performance By A Male Actor In A Leading RoleSTEVE CARELL / John Du Pont – FOXCATCHER (Sony Pictures Classics)BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH / Alan Turing – THE IMITATION GAME (The Weinstein Company)JAKE GYLLENHAAL / Louis Bloom – NIGHTCRAWLER (Open Road Films)MICHAEL KEATON / Riggan – BIRDMAN (Fox Searchlight Pictures)EDDIE REDMAYNE / Stephen Hawking – THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING (Focus Features) - WINNER Outstanding Performance By A Female Actor In A Leading RoleJULIANNE MOORE / Alice Howland – STILL ALICE (Sony Pictures Classics) – WINNERFELICITY JONES / Jane Hawking – THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING (Focus Features)JULIANNE MOORE / Alice Howland – STILL ALICE (Sony Pictures Classics)ROSAMUND PIKE / Amy Dunne – GONE GIRL (20th Century Fox)REESE WITHERSPOON / Cheryl Strayed – WILD (Fox Searchlight Pictures) Outstanding Performance By A Male Actor In A Supporting RoleROBERT DUVALL / Joseph Palmer – THE JUDGE (Warner Bros.

For all its trailblazing tradition, Sundance has on occasion been accused of selecting opening-night films that have been less than buzz-worthy. That may have been on the minds of programmers who decided this year to start things off with a bang, specifically The Bronze.

It took a first time director – Kim Farrant – and a psychological family mystery/crime drama for Nicole Kidman to return to her cinematic roots with Strangerland. “It was great to be able to go back to Australia and support the Australian film industry.

Its no secret that every January Hollywood picks up stakes and moves to Park City for ten days – and when you shoehorn most of moviedom in the snowcapped capital of indie cinema anything can happen. That’s how you can bump into James Franco and Brad Pitt at the same bar counter.

The 13th edition of the Noir City film festival opened in San Francisco recently with the screening of a film that was restored with help from a grant that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association gave the Film Noir Foundation last year. More than 1,400 enthusiastic fans of film noir, many dressed in period clothes, jammed the historic Castro Theater to capacity, and gave a loud and warm welcome to the re-premiere of Woman on the Run, a 1950 film noir starring Ann Sheridan.

Clint Eastwood and Bradley Cooper’s American Sniper hit the U. S.

Anita Ekberg, Golden Globe winner, died January 11, at a clinic near Rome. The actress was the sex symbol of the 1960s, made famous by her role as Sylvia in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960).