Werc Werk Works are backing some “out there” filmmakers in Todd Solondz (Forgiveness) and Bela Tarr's rumoured last feature film (The Turin Horse), and now they are backing an “out there” project in Rob Esptein (The Times of Harvey Milk) and Jeffrey Friedman’s Howl.
It was a Slumdog Millionnaire kind of night and it was nice to see the totally unprepared Kate Winslet pick up matching statuettes -- but the behind the scenes players were also the big winners of the night. The first that comes to mind as an afterthought from the ones mentioned and underlined in some of those acceptance speeches is Peter Rice.
Today’s announcement comes with little surprise, but I’m glad to see that Benjamin Button and Frost/Nixon are leveling the playing field sort of speak. While Doubt picked up 4 nominations it couldn’t crack the top 5 noms for Best Dramatic Feature and Milk was almost totally taken off the score card – only Sean Penn got a nod.
Gus Van Sant and David Fincher’s respective films grabbed eight nominations each in the 14th Broadcast Film Critics Association’s Critics Choice Awards (a group which is an amalgamation of 235 film reviewers in TV, radio or web outlets.
I’m pleased by some of the names and film titles that were nominated in the fifteen categories and especially glad to see that Lance Hammer’s Ballast grabbed six nominations but I’m perplexed by one of the two films it shares a total of six nominations with.