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Winter's Bone
Above: Scene from the 2010 film Winter's Bone. This small-budget, independent film has garnered 50+ nominations and awards (in particular 4 Oscar nominations). Not bad for a small film which made $84,000 on four screens in its opening week.
The film features actress Jennifer Lawrence as an older sister who has to keep her family together amid the harsh, rocky beauty of wintertime in the Ozark mountains. With her father missing (he has presumably jumped bail) the family home is forfeit as the bail guarantee. The mother is nearly catatonic and her two younger siblings dependent on her to keep them going, Lawrence's character starts out on a quest to locate her missing dad, despite having to pass through meth labs, various criminal hideouts, and to face her own vicious, frightening "Uncle Teardrop" (actor John Hawkes) who is either her only real ally or possibly her worst enemy.
Director Debra Granik required the film be made in the Ozarks, which almost caused the financing to fall apart. Her resolve pays off, though, because the landscape itself is a character in the movie which communicates much of what is happening and what it all means.
ACADEMY AWARDS
Best Picture - nominee
Best Actress - nominee
Best Supporting Actor - nominee
Best Adapted Screenplay - nominee
GOLDEN GLOBES
Best Actress, Drama - nominee
SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS
Best Actress - nominee
Best Supporting Actor - nominee
SPIRIT AWARDS
Best Feature - nominee
Best Director - nominee
Best Screenplay - nominee
Best Female Lead - nominee
Best Supporting Female - WINNER
Best Supporting Male - WINNER
Best Cinematography - nominee
GOTHAM AWARDS
Best Feature - WINNER
Best Ensemble Performance - WINNER
Breakthrough Actor - nominee
Audience Award – nominee
NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW
Breakthrough Performance - WINNER
BFCA CRITICS' CHOICE MOVIE AWARDS
Best Picture - nominee
Best Actress - nominee
Best Adapted Screenplay - nominee
Best Young Actor - nominee
NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS
Best Picture - 2nd runner-up
HUMANITAS Prize
Sundance Feature Category
SATELLITE AWARDS
Best Motion Picture, Drama - nominee
Best Director - nominee
Best Actress, Drama - nominee
Best Adapted Screenplay - nominee
HOLLYWOOD FILM FESTIVAL
New Hollywood Award - Jennifer Lawrence
PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Rising Star Award - Jennifer Lawrence
LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION
Best Actress - runner-up
VILLAGE VOICE CRITICS POLL
Best Actress - WINNER
Best Supporting Actor - WINNER
Best Supporting Actress - runner-up
INDIEWIRE CRITICS POLL
Best Supporting Performance - WINNER
ONLINE FILM CRITICS SOCIETY
Best Picture - nominee
Best Actress - nominee
Best Supporting Actor - nominee
Best Adapted Screenplay - nominee
ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS
Best Film - nominee
Best Director - nominee
Best Adapted Screenplay - nominee
Best Actress - nominee
Best Supporting Actor - nominee
Best Ensemble - nominee
Best Cinematography - nominee
Best Woman Director - nominee
Best Woman Screenwriter - nominee
Best Breakthrough Performance - nominee
Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in the Film Industry - nominee
Unforgettable Moment Award - nominee
THE WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE
Best Movie By a Woman - WINNER
Best Young Actress - WINNER
Adrienne Shelly Award: For a film that most passionately opposes violence against women - WINNER
USC LIBRARIES SCRIPTER AWARD
Best book-to-film adaptation - nominee
WASHINGTON, D.C. AREA FILM CRITICS
Best Actress - WINNER
Best Adapted Screenplay - nominee
Best Supporting Actor - nominee
TORONTO FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION
Best Actress - WINNER
SAN FRANCISCO FILM CRITICS CIRCLE
Best Supporting Actor - WINNER
CHICAGO FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION
Most Promising Performer - WINNER
Best Picture - nominee
Best Director - nominee
Best Adapted Screenplay - nominee
Best Actress - nominee
Best Supporting Actor - nominee
DETROIT FILM CRITICS SOCIETY
Best Actress – WINNER
Best Ensemble - WINNER
Breakthrough Performance - WINNER
Best Supporting Actor – nominee
Best Film - nominee
Best Director - nominee
LONDON CRITICS CIRCLE
Best Actress - nominee
HOUSTON AREA FILM CRITICS
Best Picture - nominee
Best Actress - nominee
Best Screenplay - nominee
INDIANA FILM JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION
Best Film - nominee
Best Director - runner-up
Best Actress - runner-up
Best Supporting Actor - runner-up
ST. LOUIS FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION
Best Actress - runner-up
Best Adapted Screenplay - runner-up
Best Supporting Actor - nominee
Best Arthouse Film - nominee
SOUTHEASTERN FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION
Gene Wyatt Award for Best Southern Film - WINNER
Best Actress - runner-up
Best Ensemble - runner-up
Best Adapted Screenplay - runner-up
PHOENIX FILM CRITICS SOCIETY
Breakthrough Behind the Camera - WINNER
Best Picture - nominee
Best Actress - nominee
Breakthrough on Camera - nominee
SAN DIEGO FILM CRITICS SOCIETY
Best Film - WINNER
Best Actress - WINNER
Best Supporting Actor - WINNER
Best Supporting Actress - nominee
Best Director - nominee
Best Adapted Screenplay - nominee
Best Ensemble Performance - nominee
DALLAS/FT. WORTH FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION
Best Actress - runner-up
Russell Smith Award for Best Independent Film - WINNER
LAS VEGAS FILM CRITICS SOCIETY
Best Actress - nominee
Youth In Film - nominee
UTAH FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION
Best Screenplay – nominee
Best Actress – nominee
Best Supporting Actor – nominee
FLORIDA FILM CRITICS CIRCLE
Breakout Award - WINNER
DUBLIN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE
Best Actress - WINNER
Breakthrough Award - WINNER
CENTRAL OHIO FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION
Breakthrough Fim Artist (Jennifer Lawrence) - runner-up
Best Actress - runner-up
Best Film - nominee
Best Supporting Actor - nominee
Best Adapted Screenplay - nominee
Breakthrough Film Artist (Debra Granik) - nominee
VANCOUVER FILM CRITICS CIRCLE
Best Actress - nominee
Best Supporting Actor - nominee
BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM AWARDS
Best Foreign Film – nominee
LONDON EVENING STANDARD AWARDS
Technical Achievement Award (Dickon Hinchliffe) - nominee
Film budget: Estimated $2 million. Domestic gross to date (May 2011): $$6,531,503.
Film is on DVD from amazon, and blu-ray
Original page May 2011.
New Jean Harlow book
I've not seen a copy of the book yet, but simply put, the Vieira Hollywood picture-books are the best albums on Hollywood, bar none, for well over a decade now. No one puts as much attention to the production aspects, design, picture choices, and then ladles the whole affair with affection and admiration in the text. Classic Hollywood has not had a modern explainer and admirer like Vieira for decades now, and the taste and skill brought to bear on his books make them both readable-fun and collectible (some of his past books are out of print and instead of dropping down to the remainder pricing so many used Hollywood books seem to end up at, his instead get harder to find and buy).
Book is by Darrell Rooney and Mark Vieira, 240 pages, Angel City Press. Available from amazon.com
New Book: Broken Silence: Conversations with 23 Silent Film Stars
This is a collection of 23 original interviews with stars of the silent screen, with biographical information and a filmography included for each.
Interviewed are Lew Ayres, William Bakewell, Lina Basquette, Madge Bellamy, Eleanor Boardman, Ethlyne Clair, Junior Coghlan, Joyce Compton, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Dorothy Gulliver, Maxine Elliott Hicks, Dorothy Janis, George Lewis, Marion Mack, Patsy Ruth Miller, Lois Moran, Baby Marie Osborne, Muriel Ostriche, Eddie Quillan, Esther Ralston, Dorothy Revier, David Rollins and Gladys Walton.
About the Author Michael G. Ankerich is a writer whose work focuses on the silent film era of Hollywood. A former newspaper reporter, he has written extensively for Classic Images, Films of the Golden Age, and Hollywood Studio Magazine, which featured his interview with Butterfly McQueen (Prissy) on the 50th anniversary of the release of Gone With The Wind.
Book is 319 pages, McFarland. Available from amazon.com
New Busby Berkeley book
Maybe the most revered of musical directors was the extreme-stylist of the golden era of Hollywood movies, Busby Berkeley, a man who changed what a stage-production meant on film by taking the camera and making it move like a winged-eye that could see the motion of actors from every angle. Whether they were underwater, behind glass, or below a skyward lense, Berkeley made synchronized motion more than a filmed reproduction of a Broadway play.
Book is by Jeffrey Spivak, 408 pages, University Press of Kentucky. Available from amazon.com