2011 Goya Predictions

Ok, so let's try this.

A couple of weeks ago I accidentally came across a book titled How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read, by French author and literature professor Pierre Bayard. As its self-explanatory title indicates, it is an erudite but hilarious guide on how to comment on books you haven't even opened. My Goya Predictions contribution this year is something similar, since I've only seen one of the four Best Picture nominees (Rodrigo Cortés' Buried) and virtually none of the other films in contention for any category. I have, however, a secret weapon that can help me out in this blind guess: the Spanish Academy's dull predictability and its far from opaque inner mechanics.

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Balada Triste de Trompeta leads Goya nominations with 15 nods

Balada Triste de Trompeta leads the nominations for the Goya Awards, which were announced this morning by the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with 15 nods and will probably cruise to victory at a ceremony to be held in Madrid on Sunday, February 13, and which will mark the 25^th anniversary of the Spanish Film Awards.

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The NBR aftermath: Lesley Manville, Jacki Weaver and Buried

You have to take with a pinch of salt any conclusion drawn from the announcement of the 2010 National Board of Review Awards. As traditional starting gun of the film awards season they manage to gather a lot of attention but the clout they have on the rest of the awards race is limited at best.

The Oscar hopes of many films start and end in the NBR and, as a rule of thumb, one might argue that films that win here won’t fare well later in the season, especially on the big night at the Academy Awards.

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2010 National Board of Review Awards announced

The 2010 National Board of Review Awards have been announced. I'll post soon an analysis of the results in Imitation of Life. Until then, here is the complete list of winners. You can compare it against my predictions, which are available in the previous entry of the blog.

Just one comment. Lesley Manville and Jacki Weaver have been named best actress and supporting actress, respectively. Does it get any better?

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BURIED WINS CRITICS' AWARD IN DEAUVILLE

Rodrigo Garcia's Mother and Child, starring Naomi Watts and Annette Bening, took top honors at the Deauville American Film Festival. The Jury Prize was shared by Debra Garnik's Winter's Bone (winner at Sundance) and David Robert Mitchell's The Myth of the American Sleepover.

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