"Black Swan" took home Best Film, Best Actress (Natalie Portman), Best Cinematography, and Best Director (Darren Aronofsky) at tonight's Independent Spirit Awards. Oscars' most favorited contender "The King's Speech" won Best Foreign Film, while "The Kids Are Alright" took home Best Screenplay.
The Oscar host James Franco was the Best Actor for his incredible performance in "127 Hours". Other indie favorite "Winter's Bone" won two awards for Best Supporting Actor and Actress, John Hawkes and Dale Dickey respectively.
"Marwencol" won Truer than Fiction award, but lost to "Exit through Gift Shop" in Best Documentary. "Marwencol", directed by Jeff Malmberg and starring Mark Hogancamp as the single actor, has received numerous positive critics and is definitely included in my 'must watch' list.
Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, and Geoffrey Rush presenting "The King's Speech" at Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Tom Hooper's critically acclaimed "The King's Speech" snatched the biggest award of tonight's Screen Actors Guld Awards (SAG Awards) as Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture—or shortly Best Movie! Colin Firth, leading actor of "The King's Speech" also won Best Actor, beating Jeff Bridges for "True Grit", Jesse Eisenberg for "The Social Network", Robert Duvall for "Get Low", and James Franco for "127 Hours". While the Best Actress went to "Black Swan" leading lady Natalie Portman.
Another big winners are the cast of "The Fighter", in which Christian Bale (the birthday boy—he's officially 37 tonight!) and Melissa Leo named as Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress respectively. Both were also the winners of Best Supporting roles in the previous Golden Globe Awards.
As for the television category, Best Comedy went to "Modern Family" (which surprisingly beat the favorited nominee "Glee"), while the Best Drama went to "Boardwalk Empire". Alec Baldwin and Betty White were Best Actors in Comedy Series. Steve Buschemi, who previously won Best Actor for Television Series in Golden Globe also won Best Actor for Drama TV Series, while the Best Actress was Julianna Margulies. Click "Read More" for full winner list.
Congratulations for all the winners! This speculates that "The King's Speech" might be the strongest candidate to win in the next award show, Orange British Academy Film Awards (or the BAFTAs), or even the Academy Awards.
Another personal note to myself: I need to see "The King's Speech" real soon. Before the Oscars!
Finally! The Oscar aka Academy Awards nominations have been announced! The British masterpiece "The King's Speech" leads the Oscar with 12 nominations, followed by "True Grit" with 10 nominations, and then "Inception" and "The Social Network" with 8 nominations each. Other favorites like "Black Swan", "The Fighter", and "Toy Story 3" are also included. Here are the complete nomination list, plus my favorites to win!
The year 2010 might not be a blockbuster year like what happened back in 2007 (but "Toy Story 3", "Inception", "Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part I", and even "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" had significant numbers in box office), but it truly had a LOT of new talent discoveries and ground-breaking movies. "W" Magazine listed 20 Best Performances of 2010 and I'm really glad that they included some of my favorite young actors.
Other seniors like Julianne Moore, Helena Bonham-Carter, Javier Bardem, Michael Douglas, and Colin Firth also made the list.
NATALIE PORTMAN IN “BLACK SWAN”
“The movie that I watched the most when I was growing up was Dirty Dancing. I always loved Penny, probably because I was really like Baby. I was a Jewish girl from a Jewish family, so of course I liked the tall, skinny blond girl.”
JESSE EISENBERG IN “THE SOCIAL NETWORK”
“I started acting to be included in a group, because I felt excluded in school. The final product was out of my control, so it didn’t really matter to me. I just liked being in a group of people that didn’t kick my shin.”
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE & ANDREW GARFIELD IN “THE SOCIAL NETWORK”
“What if Mark Zuckerberg and Sean Parker suffered from the same insecurity and fear and paranoia? Mark dealt with those feelings by inventing Facebook. And my character, Sean Parker, invented Sean Parker. He created his own persona.”—Justin Timberlake
“I found The Goonies very inspiring. I identified with every character: Mikey, the leader; Mouth, the trickster; Data, the inventor; and Chunk, this lovely, beautiful, sad, misunderstood, slightly larger kid. The Goonies is boys needing to be boys on their path to manhood. It’s a classic.”—Andrew Garfield
JONAH HILL IN “CYRUS”
“I connect most with things that are uncomfortable and heartbreaking. And I think comedy is very uncomfortable and heartbreaking. Discomfort is extremely amusing to me.”
DAKOTA FANNING IN “THE RUNAWAYS”
“It was important for me to go to a normal high school. I have a locker, which was a big deal. My mom had to buy me a lock and teach me how to use it. It’s the little things: Where do you go at lunch? How do you open the locker? I wanted a yearbook! Now I have a lot of signatures in my yearbook—‘Have a good summer’ and all that.”
MILA KUNIS IN “BLACK SWAN”
“Before Black Swan, I had never danced in my life, and I will never dance again. I lost 20 pounds in three months, danced five hours a day, for seven days a week. I tore a ligament. I dislocated my shoulder. I have two scars on my back. It was worth every minute, but I will never put on toe shoes again.”
ELLE FANNING IN “SOMEWHERE”
“The first movie I really fell in love with was The Seven Year Itch. I love Marilyn Monroe. I went as her in the white dress for Halloween. I did the mole and the little cat eye.”
