Sunday, January 31, 2010

Weekly News Round-Up - Jan. 25-31, 2010

Films in the Works
The final two Harry Potter films will be released in theaters in 3D. [Hollywood Reporter]

Robert De Niro will play Alabama Governor George Wallace in director Lee Daniels' (Precious) upcoming Civil Rights drama Selma. [Deadline Hollywood via Coming Soon]

Zachary Quinto (Star Trek, TV's "Heroes") is likely to play composer George Gershwin in an upcoming biopic for director Steven Spielberg. [Deadline Hollywood]

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has revealed that the Hulk will be a part of the upcoming big screen version of The Avengers. He said they would attempt to get Edward Norton to return to the role that he played in The Incredible Hulk. As previously announced, he would be joining Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth - the film will be released in 2011), Captain America and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson, who has appeared in Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk). [Superhero Hype]

James Bobin (co-creator of TV's "Flight of the Conchords") has signed on to direct the latest Muppet movie, written by Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller. [Hollywood Reporter]

Mel Gibson is in talks to star in the thriller Cold Warrior, which tells the story of a Cold War era spy and a younger spy teaming up to address a Russian terrorism threat. [Coming Soon]

Olivia Newton-John will play a hockey mom in Score: A Hockey Musical. She will also co-write a new song for the film's closing credits. [Yahoo]

Lucasfilm's next project will be a CGI-animated musical about fairies, written by David Berenbaum (Elf, The Spiderwick Chronicles) and directed by Kevin Munroe (TMNT, the upcoming Dead of Night). [Hollywood Reporter]

Will Ferrell is developing an American remake of the French romantic comedy I Do: How to Get Married and Stay Single. [Pajiba]

Instead of directing the comic book adaptation Lobo, Guy Ritchie's next project will be Sherlock Holmes 2, according to producer Joel Silver. [The Los Angeles Times]

Seth Rogen (Knocked Up) and Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain) will co-star in writer-director Sarah Polley's Take This Waltz, which is described as a film about a romantic triangle. [Deadline Hollywood]

James Marsden (27 Dresses, the X-Men films) and Russell Brand (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) will co-star in the part live-action, part CG-animated comedy I Hop, which tells the story of an unemployed slacker (Marsden) who injures the Easter Bunny (voiced by Brand). [Hollywood Reporter]

A new still from Disney-Pixar's Toy Story 3 has been released, in addition to some concept art from Cars 2. [Coming Soon] Coming Soon also has a new still from Iron Man 2.

Demi Moore and Miley Cyrus are in talks to star in a remake of the French film L.O.L.: Laughing Out Loud. Lisa Azuelos-Alessandrin, who directed the original, will also direct the remake. [Coming Soon]

Zac Efron will executive produce and star in the graphic novel adaptation Fire, a spy thriller. He is also attached to star in a "Back to the Future-like film." [Deadline Hollywood]

Playtone (Tom Hanks' production company) is developing a project about L.A.'s Comedy Store, a legendary comedy club where Eddie Murphy, David Letterman, Chevy Chase and Jim Carrey (just to name a few) performed stand-up early in their careers. The film would focus on Comedy Store founder Mitzi Shore (who is also Pauly Shore's mother). [Pajiba]

John C. Reilly and Tilda Swinton will co-star in the film adaptation of the novel We Need to Talk About Kevin, which centers on an estranged couple whose son has committed a mass murder. [Movieline]

Guy Pearce (Memento) and Mary-Louise Parker (TV's "Weeds") will star in the psychological drama The Well, which is actor Tim Guinee's directorial debut. [Empire]

Nicholas Hoult (About a Boy, A Single Man) is in negotiations to join Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Zoe Kravitz, Teresa Palmer and Adelaide Clemens in Fury Road, the latest installment of the Mad Max series. [Hollywood Reporter]

Paz Vega (Spanglish, Talk to Her) and Daniel Bruhl (Inglourious Basterds, The Edukators) will co-star in Castro's Daughter, based on the memoir Exile's Memoir of Cuba by Alina Fernandez, an illegitimate daughter of Fidel Castro and one of his critics. [Empire]

Kyra Sedgwick and Vincent D'Onofrio will co-star in the indie dramedy Chlorine, about a New England family struggling to keep up their well-off lifestyle. [Yahoo]

Gavin Hood (Tsotsi, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) is in talks to direct an untitled Alaskan adventure film based on the novel The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race Against an Epidemic, which tells the true story behind a group of 20 men and 200 dogs that delivered a diphtheria antidote to Nome, Alaska, in 1952. [Hollywood Reporter]

Last week, Lionsgate announced that they would be adapting the parenting book What to Expect When You're Expecting into a film. This week, DreamWorks announced that they're doing the same with Eat, Sleep, Poop: A Common Sense Guide to Your Baby's First Year. [Hollywood Reporter]

Industry News

Legendary arthouse movie studio Miramax closed its doors on Jan. 28, but it looks as though Disney will be selling off what's left of the company. We have more information here.

Warner Bros. is looking to buy Leavesden Studios in England (where its Harry Potter films along with parts of The Dark Knight and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory were shot) in order to create a European production hub. [Empire]

Overture Films (The Visitor, Capitalism: A Love Story) has announced a 90-day hold on development that will allow for its parent companies, Liberty Media and Starz, to review the independent film studio's finances and practices. [Yahoo]

The British Film Institute (BFI) and the UK Film Council are planning a merger. [The Guardian]

Movie Gallery Inc., which owns the movie rental chain Hollywood Video, will likely file for bankruptcy as soon as next week. [Yahoo] Meanwhile, Netflix is revealing hints of a plan to expand to a international company. [Yahoo]

Film Festivals

The award winners at this year's Sundance Film Festival were announced on Jan. 30. The jury winners are Winter's Bone (U.S. Dramatic Competition), Restrepo (U.S. Documentary Competition), Animal Kingdom (World Cinema Dramatic Competition) and The Red Chapel (World Cinema Documentary Competition). The audience winners are HappyThankYouMorePlease (U.S. Dramatic), Waiting for Superman (U.S. Documentary), Undertow (World Dramatic) and Wasteland (World Documentary). More information and the complete list of winners can be found at Indiewire.

Organizers have announced that director Tim Burton will be president of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival this May. [The Guardian]

German filmmaker Werner Herzog (Fitzcarraldo, Rescue Dawn) will preside over the International Jury at the 2010 Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival). The other jury members are Italian filmmaker Francesca Comencini, Somalian author Nuruddin Farah, German actress Cornelia Froboess, Spanish producer José Maria Morales, Chinese actress Yu Nan and American actress Renee Zellweger. German filmmaker Michael Verhoeven will be the head of the Best First Feature Jury. The other members are American actor Ben Foster and Malaysian producer Lorna Tee. More information can be found here.

Deaths

Author J.D. Salinger (The Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey), whose short story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" was turned into the film My Foolish Heart, died of natural causes on Jan. 27. He was 91. [The New York Times]

Actress Zelda Rubinstein (Poltergeist, Sixteen Candles) also died of natural causes on Jan. 27. She was 76. [The Los Angeles Times]

Award-winning film editor Karen Schmeer (Sergio, The Fog of War, Sketches of Frank Gehry) died on Jan. 29 after being hit by a car that was fleeing a burglary in Manhattan. She was 39. [Indiewire]

In Other News

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has come up with a list of the "15 Most Influential Film Soundtracks" - King Kong (1933), Alexander Nevsky (1938), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Blackboard Jungle (1955), The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), Psycho (1960), A Hard Day's Night (1964), Goldfinger (1964), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), The Graduate (1967), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Shaft (1971), American Graffiti (1973), Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Star Wars (1977). More information about the soundtracks can be found here.

In an annual Harris Poll, Clint Eastwood has been named "America's Favorite Movie Star," just ahead of Johnny Depp, Denzel Washington, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, George Clooney, John Wayne, Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman and Julia Roberts. More information can be found here.

Johnny Depp and his partner, singer-actress Vanessa Paradis, will be part of a charity cover of "I Put a Spell on You" for earthquake relief in Haiti led by The Pogues' frontman Shane MacGowan. The musician Nick Cave, who has co-written scores for films including The Proposition and The Road, will also participate. [The Guardian]

John Travolta flew his Boeing 707 from Florida to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to deliver six tons of relief supplies, doctors and ministers from the Church of Scientology to help victims of the Jan. 12 earthquake. [Yahoo]

Actor Rip Torn (Men in Black, Cross Creek) was arrested after allegedly breaking into a Connecticut bank with a loaded gun while intoxicated. [Yahoo]

The Iron Man 2 soundtrack will solely feature 15 songs by AC/DC. [Spinner]

Without adjusting for inflation, Avatar has become the highest-grossing film worldwide of all time, surpassing Titanic. [Hollywood.com]

Actor James McAvoy and his wife, actress Anne-Marie Duff (The Last Station), are expecting their first child. [UK Press Association]

Director Spike Jonze's (Being John Malkovich, Where the Wild Things Are) short film I'm Here, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, will air on IFC sometime later this year. [Entertainment Weekly]

Actress Ashley Judd (Kiss the Girls, Double Jeopardy) is writing her first memoir, which details how some of her childhood experiences led her to become an advocate for abandoned women and children in poor countries. [Yahoo]

The Criterion Collection has launched a YouTube channel, which features trailers for many of its films.

Weekly Awards Round-Up - Jan. 25-31, 2010

The Directors Guild of America held its awards ceremony on Jan. 30. Kathryn Bigelow won Best Feature Film Director (the first woman to do so) for The Hurt Locker. Louie Psihoyos won the award for Best Documentary Direction for The Cove. Norman Jewison was given the Lifetime Achievement Award. More information can be found here.

The Grammy winners were announced on Jan. 31. In the film-related categories, the winners are "Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Michael Giacchino for Best Score for Up, and Slumdog Millionaire again for Best Soundtrack. More information can be found here.

The Costume Designers Guild has announced the nominees for its annual awards. The films nominated for Excellence in Contemporary Film are 500 Days of Summer, Brüno, Crazy Heart, Precious and Up in the Air; Excellence in Period Film: Coco Before Chanel, Julie & Julia, Nine, Sherlock Holmes and The Young Victoria; Excellence in Fantasy Film: Avatar, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and Star Trek. The winners will be announced at a ceremony on Feb. 25, and more information can be found here.

Anne Hathaway received her pudding pot and was honored with a parade on Jan. 28 for being named Woman of the Year by Hasty Pudding Theatricals, Harvard's undergraduate theatre troupe. Justin Timberlake has been named Man of the Year, and will receive his honor on Feb. 5. More information can be found here. Hathaway will also announce the nominees for this year's Academy Awards alongside Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak on Feb. 2. The winners will be announced at the 82nd annual ceremony on March 7, which will air live on ABC. More information can be found here.

Friday, January 29, 2010

R.I.P. Miramax Films, 1979-2010?

The offices of legendary arthouse movie studio Miramax closed their doors on Jan. 28. Founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein, who left the studio in 2005 and formed The Weinstein Company, recently expressed interest in buying their former company back from Disney, but Disney chief Bob Iger set a price of $1.5 billion, which is probably too high, considering the issues the Weinsteins have been having at their own company.

However, the Weinstein bros. might have been motivated enough to find the funds to get back their old name through sheer nostalgia and force of will. They started Miramax in 1979 and named it after their parents, Miriam and Max. They sold the studio to Disney in 1993. Due to budget restraints and disagreements with Michael Eisner, who was then the head of Disney, the Weinsteins left in 2005 and haven't really looked back until now. When they left the studio they left the name and the studio's film library behind.

Throughout the years, Miramax has produced and distributed such critically acclaimed films as Sex, Lies and Videotape, The Crying Game, The Piano, Clerks, Pulp Fiction, The English Patient, Sling Blade, Trainspotting, Good Will Hunting, Life Is Beautiful, The Cider House Rules, Shakespeare in Love, Chocolat, Bridget Jones's Diary, Amelie, City of God, Chicago, The Aviator and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. The Weinsteins and Miramax are at least partly responsible for launching the careers of filmmakers Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith, and have been an important force in bringing foreign films to American filmgoers. The face of independent cinema, and cinema as a whole, over the last 20 years would not be the same without Miramax's contributions. The legacy of the studio will not be forgotten.

Here's a highlight reel, circa 2003:

Miramax's six current projects, which include the romantic drama Last Night (starring Keira Knightley) and director Julie Taymor's take on William Shakespeare's The Tempest with Helen Mirren, will either be scrapped, get a very limited release in theaters or head straight to DVD. More information about projects they had in the works can be found on their website, and you can scroll through their impressive list of "Signature Films" at the bottom of the page.

*Update, Jan. 31* According to the latest news report, Disney is looking to sell off what's left of Miramax for around $700 million, attracting "seven to 10 bidders." Hopefully one of those bidders (and the winning one) is the Weinsteins.

Sources
On Miramax closing: The Wrap
On The Weinstein Co.'s financial issues: Deadline Hollywood
On the Weinstein bros.' desire to buy back Miramax: Deadline Hollywood
List of films released by Miramax: Wikipedia

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Weekly Awards Round-Up - Jan. 18-24, 2010

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards took place on Jan. 23. The cast of Inglourious Basterds won Best Ensemble, and Christoph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor for his work in the film. Jeff Bridges won Best Actor for Crazy Heart, and Mo'Nique won Best Supporting Actress for Precious. Best Actress winner Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) presented Betty White with the SAG Lifetime Achievement Award. The stunt performers from Star Trek won Best Stunt Ensemble. Drew Barrymore won Best Actress in a Made-for-TV Movie for Grey Gardens, and Kevin Bacon won Best Actor in Made-for-TV Movie for Taking Chance. The full list of nominees can be found here.

The Producers Guild of America's Awards took place on Jan. 24. The Hurt Locker won Best Picture, Up won Best Animated Film and The Cove won Best Documentary. Precious was honored with the Stanley Kramer Award, while Pixar's John Lasseter was given a Career Achievement Award. Grey Gardens was named Best Made-for-TV Movie. More information can be found here.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced the nominees for its annual film awards, commonly known as the BAFTAs - the British equivalent of the Oscars. The Best Picture nominees are: Avatar, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Precious and Up in the Air. British Film: An Education, Fish Tank, In the Loop, Moon, Nowhere Boy
British Debut: Lucy Bailey, Andrew Thompson, Elizabeth Morgan Hemlock & David Pearson (Mugabe and the White African); Eran Creevy (Shifty); Stuart Hazeldine (Exam); Duncan Jones (Moon); Sam Taylor-Wood (Nowhere Boy)
Director: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), Neill Blomkamp (District 9), James Cameron (Avatar), Lone Scherfig (An Education), Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
Original Screenplay: Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker), Joel & Ethan Coen (A Serious Man), Pete Docter & Bob Peterson (Up), Jon Lucas & Scott Moore (The Hangover), Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
Adapted Screenplay: Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci & Tony Roche (In the Loop); Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell (District 9); Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious); Nick Hornby (An Education); Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air)
Actor: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart), George Clooney (Up in the Air), Colin Firth (A Single Man), Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker), Andy Serkis (Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll)
Actress: Carey Mulligan (An Education), Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious), Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia), Audrey Tautou (Coco Before Chanel)
Supporting Actor: Alec Baldwin (It's Complicated), Christian McKay (Me and Orson Welles), Alfred Molina (An Education), Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones), Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)
Supporting Actress: Anne-Marie Duff (Nowhere Boy), Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air), Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air), Mo'Nique (Precious), Kristin Scott Thomas (Nowhere Boy)
Film Not in the English Language: Broken Embraces, Coco Before Chanel, Let the Right One In, A Prophet, The White Ribbon
Animated Film: Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Up
Animated Short: The Gruffalo, The Happy Duckling, Mother of Many
Short Film: 14, I Do Air, Jade, Mixtape, Off Season
Cinematography: Barry Ackroyd (The Hurt Locker), Javier Aguirresarobe (The Road), Mauro Fiore (Avatar), Trent Opaloch (District 9), Robert Richardson (Inglourious Basterds)
Editing: James Cameron, John Refoua & Stephen Rivkin (Avatar); Julian Clarke (District 9); Dana E. Glauberman (Up in the Air); Chris Innis & Bob Murawski (The Hurt Locker); Sally Menke (Inglourious Basterds)
Production Design: Rick Carter, Kim Sinclair & Robert Stromberg (Avatar); Stuart Craig & Stephenie McMillan (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince), Philip Ivey & Guy Poltgieter (District 9), Anastasia Masaro (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus), David Wasco & Sandy Reynolds Wasco (Inglourious Basterds)
Costume Design: Odile Dicks-Mireaux (An Education), Catherine Leterrier (Coco Before Chanel), Janet Patterson (Bright Star), Arianne Phillips (A Single Man), Sandy Powell (The Young Victoria)
Make Up & Hair: Peter King (Nine), Sarah Monzani (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus), Thi Thanh Tu Nguyen & Jane Milon (Coco Before Chanel), Jenny Shircore (The Young Victoria), Lizzie Yianni Georgiou (An Education)
Visual Effects: Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh & Burt Dalton (Star Trek); Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros & Matt Aitken (District 9); Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham & Andrew R. Jones (Avatar); John Richardson, Tim Burke, Tim Alexander & Nicolas Aithadi (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince); Richard Stutsman (The Hurt Locker)
Sound: Ray Beckett, Paul N.J. Ottosson & Craig Stauffer (The Hurt Locker); Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson, Tony Johnson and Addison Teague (Avatar); Brent Burge, Chris Ward, Dave Whitehead, Michael Hedges and Ken Saville (District 9); Peter J. Devlin, Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, Mark Stoeckinger & Ben Burtt (Star Trek); Tom Myers, Michael Silvers & Michael Semanick (Up)
The winners will be announced at a ceremony on Feb. 21. More information can be found here.

The nominees for the Cesar Awards, the French equivalent of the Oscars, have been announced. The prison drama A Prophet, which is in contention for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, received 13 nominations, and In the Beginning received 11. Coco Before Chanel received three nominations, including one for Best Actress Audrey Tautou. The Best Film nominees are The Concert, In the Beginning, A Prophet, Rapt, Welcome and Wild Grass. The Best Foreign Film nominees are Avatar, Gran Torino, I Killed My Mother, Milk, Slumdog Millionaire, A Town Called Panic and The White Ribbon. The complete list of nominees and more information can be found here; the winners will be announced on Feb. 27.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the short list for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film: Ajami (Israel), Kelin (Kazakhstan), The Milk of Sorrow (Peru), A Prophet (France), Samson & Delilah (Australia), The Secret in Their Eyes (Argentina), The White Ribbon (Germany), Winter in Wartime (Netherlands) and The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner (Bulgaria). The final five nominees will be announced on Feb. 2, and the winner will be announced at the Academy Awards ceremony on March 7. More information can be found here.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) have named Avatar as their recipient of the 2010 Proggy Award for Outstanding Feature Film. More information can be found here.

The International Cinephile Society has named the nominees for its film awards for 2009. The Best Picture nominees are 35 Shots of Rum, Bright Star, District 9, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, A Serious Man, Tokyo Sonata, Up in the Air and The White Ribbon.
Film Not in the English Language: 35 Shots of Rum, The Beaches of Agnes, Broken Embraces, The Headless Woman, Lorna's Silence, O'Horten, Ponyo, Still Waking, Summer Hours, Tokyo Sonata, The White Ribbon
Director: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), Neill Blomkamp (District 9), Joel & Ethan Coen (A Serious Man), Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon), Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
Original Screenplay: Olivier Assayas (Summer Hours), Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker), Joel & Ethan Coen (A Serious Man), Claire Denis & Jean-Pol Fargeau (35 Shots of Rum), Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon), Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
Adapted Screenplay: Wes Anderson & Noah Baumbach (Fantastic Mr. Fox); Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci & Tony Roche (In the Loop); Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell (District 9); Tom Ford & David Scearce (A Single Man); Spike Jonze & Dave Eggers (Where the Wild Things Are); Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air)
Actor: Sharlto Copley (District 9), Colin Firth (A Single Man), Joaquin Phoenix (Two Lovers), Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker), Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man)
Actress: Abbie Cornish (Bright Star), Catalina Saavedra (The Maid), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious), Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia), Tilda Swinton (Julia)
Supporting Actor: Peter Capaldi (In the Loop), Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker), Christian McKay (Me and Orson Welles), Jérémie Renier (Lorna's Silence), Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)
Supporting Actress: Penélope Cruz (Broken Embraces), Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air), Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds), Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds), Mo'Nique (Precious)
Ensemble: In the Loop, Inglourious Basterds, A Serious Man, Summer Hours, The White Ribbon
Animated Film: Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Mary and Max, Ponyo, Up
Documentary: Anvil! The Story of Anvil, The Beaches of Agnes, The Cove, Of Time and the City, The September Issue
Cinematography: Christian Berger (The White Ribbon), Roger Deakins (A Serious Man), Anthony Dod Mantle (Antichrist), Greig Fraser (Bright Star), Robert Richardson (Inglourious Basterds)
Editing: Julian Clarke (District 9), Chris Innis & Bob Murawski (The Hurt Locker), Roderick Jaynes (A Serious Man), Sally Menke (Inglourious Basterds), José Salcedo (Broken Embraces)
Production Design: Dan Bishop (A Single Man), Rick Carter & Robert Stromberg (Avatar), Jess Gonchor (A Serious Man), Nelson Lowry (Fantastic Mr. Fox), David Wasco (Inglourious Basterds)
Original Score: Alexandre Desplat (Fantastic Mr. Fox), Michael Giacchino (Star Trek), Michael Giacchino (Up), Joe Hisaishi (Ponyo), Abel Korzeniowski (A Single Man)
The winners will be announced on Feb. 17, and more information can be found here.

The Visual Effects Society (VES) has announced the nominations for its annual awards.
Outstanding Visual Effects in an Effects-Driven Film: 2012, Avatar, District 9, Star Trek, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Supporting Visual Effects: Angels & Demons, The Box, Invictus, The Road, Sherlock Holmes
Animation: 9, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Coraline, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Up
Animation Effects: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Coraline, Monsters vs. Aliens, Up
Single Visual Effect of the Year: 2012 (Escape from L.A.), Avatar (Neytiri Drinking), Avatar (Quarich's Escape), Knowing (Plane Crash), Terminator Salvation (VLA Escape)
Animated Character in a Live Action Film: Avatar (Neytiri), District 9 (Christopher Johnson), G-Force (Bucky), Watchmen (Doctor Manhattan)
Animated Character in an Animated Film: Coraline (Coraline), Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (Buck), Monsters vs. Aliens (B.O.B.), Up (Carl)
Matte Paintings: Avatar, Franklyn, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Star Trek
Models and Miniatures: Avatar, Coraline, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Terminator Salvation
Created Environment: 2012 (Los Angeles Destruction), Avatar (Floating Mountains), Avatar (Jungle/Biolume), Avatar (Willow Glade)
James Cameron will receive the VES Lifetime Achievement Award and Dr. Ed Catmull will receive the Georges Méliès Award at the ceremony on Feb. 28. More information can be found here.