Awards Season

Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies will début at the 53rd New York Film Festival. The Cold War spy drama, written by the Coen Brothers and starring Tom Hanks and Amy Ryan is part of a substantial line-up of world premieres that also includes Robert Zemeckis’ The Walk, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as daredevil Philippe Petit of walk-between-the-Twin-Towers fame; the Miles Davis biopic Miles Ahead, directed by and starring Don Cheadle as the jazz giant; and Laura Israel’s documentary Don’t Blink, about photographer Robert Frank.

A key stop in the festival circuit and an important element in shaping the fall season, the Toronto International Film Festival has some of the year’s most anticipated pictures on its 2015 program. Demolition, directed by Canadian Jean-Marc Vallée (Wild, Dallas Buyers Club) and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, will open this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, on September 10.

Israeli director Nadav Lapid’s The Kindergaten Teacher won the International New Talent Award at the 17th Taipei Film Festival. The HFPA's Barbara Gasser met with the emerging director at the festival to discuss cinema, poetry and the power of recognition.

The 2015 Primetime Emmy nominees were announced today and, for the sixth year in a row, the Golden Globes Awards presentation was among them with two kudos: Outstanding Special Class Program and Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special. Game of Thrones led the nominations with 24 entries including Drama Series, making HBO once again the leader of the pack, with 126 nominations.

The LA Press Club journalism awards are given each year for excellence in reporting. In the ceremony at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles Sunday the Daniel Pearl Prize for Courage and Integrity in Journalism will also be awarded to the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo.

The 68th edition of the Cannes Film Festival came to a close with the customary Palmares ceremony in which awards were handed. The jury headed, for the first time ever by a sibling president team of Joel and Ethan Coen awarded the coveted Palme D’Or to Jacques Audiard for his Paris set immigrant drama Dheepan, a drama charting the experiences of an ex Tamil rebel from Sri Lanka (Antonythasan Jesuthasan) making a new life in France.

Neil Patrick Harris hosted the 87th Annual Academy Awards live from Hollywood California January 22 where the best films of 2014 battled for Oscar gold.   “Birdman” won for Best Picture, beating out main rival “Boyhood.

It may be just an award show in the middle of the day held in a big circus tent as co-host Kristen Bell joked in the opening montage of the Film Independent Spirit Awards, but this casual star-studded affair is the premier awards show for the independent film community. Arriving at the big top on Santa Monica Beach, stars were happy to take selfies and sign autographs to the cluster of fans lined up before making their way down the magenta carpet.

The surprisingly strong sounds of a gospel song sung acappella washed over a small group of luminaries gathered at SoHo House Friday, at the invitation of Jaka Bizilj, Chairman of the Board of Cinema for Peace. The scene was fitting for an event organized to promote peace and human rights through socially conscious cinema – a welcome counterpoint to the frivolity that can permeate awards season.

The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) last night (Feb. 15) announced the winners of the 2015 Writers Guild Awards for outstanding achievement in writing for film, television, new media, games, news, radio, promotional, and graphic animation categories at simultaneous ceremonies at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles and the Edison Ballroom in New York City.