Zero Dark Flirty

My Best Picture, My Best Actress

Zero Dark Thirty is my best picture this year. 

It is an unflinching film that puts forth the efforts of nameless people against the war on terror.  For a film that is very “of the moment” it is intricately detailed and exceptionally well made. 

Zero Dark Thirty presented events as it is.  No commentary, no director point of view.  It is troubling and very uncomfortable to sit through but that is what I see a Best Picture film should do.  It should place a mirror to society in order to push the viewer to think and let them see where they stand.  It is precisely the presentation of the moral ambiguities in this film that I have come to really appreciate it.  Because I thought it respected me as a viewer by not “dumbing it down” by leading me into a point of view.  I don't want to be preached to in a movie.  Instead, it allowed me to form my own conclusions.  The torture scenes are troubling and I don’t think anyone I knew who saw the movie thought that the film “glorified” torture as its detractors have stated.  In fact, watching those scenes would just re-iterate how appalling and inhumane it was.  It is unfortunate that this existed as part of a former administration’s policy but we also have to be brave enough to face the truth.    

The events highlighted in the scenes where the agents were sifting through data and interrogation footage are mostly a slow burn.  But I thought that the pace just emphasizes the almost impossible task and constant frustration of this mission.  These scenes are juxtaposed with real life events such as the London bombings and the bombing of the Marriot Hotel which reminds the audience of how much is at stake in this hunt.  The raid sequence at the end puts the viewer on the ground with the SEAL team and provides the most nerve wracking and edge of your seat anxiety inducing sequence I’ve seen in a film.  Shot in night vision goggles, it feels so real.  So raw.  But pure brilliance in filmmaking!

Throughout the film, we the audience see the story through Maya.  She’s the lone CIA agent whose instincts direct her to follow her lead to find Bin Laden through his courier, Abu Ahmed.  She is the strongest female lead among all the characters of the Best Actress nominees this year.   It didn’t bother me that she didn’t have a backstory.  Jessica Chastain who played Maya with an all-consuming tenacity is outstanding in this role.  She is my Best Actress this year.  She developed from a CIA newbie to a seasoned interrogator who was able to read into what the detainees weren't telling them. Her portrayal is very subtle, less ego-driven and less flashy so that when she explodes in the middle of the film towards her boss, Bradley (Kyle Chandler), you are taken aback with the bottled frustration she releases.  It’s a performance that makes the viewer work had to pay attention at the nuances.  It draws the viewer in and if you miss it, too bad because it’s all there......in her eyes, forrow of her brows and hunch of her shoulders.  Detailed, determined and confident.  I think it’s more difficult to pull off a subtle performance convincingly and she did it here exceptionally well.

I know the film will not win Best Picture because of the “torture controversy”.  Heck, Kathryn Bigelow (my Best Director pick) wasn’t even nominated!  The Oscars just don’t like controversial films.  Oscar pundits have also stated that Chastain’s shot for Best Actress might now be a long shot because of this.  Who knows until later tonight.  All I know is, this is a film that my friends and I keep talking about even weeks after we’ve seen it.  It fosters a good discussion.  I feel that maybe as years go on, it will be remembered as a great film or maybe an important one.  The last scene when Maya finally shows her release and cries, is for me, the most indelible image from any film this year.  It’s powerful and haunting. 

 

(photo from IMDB.com)

Chastain on Katie

On Tuesday Feb. 12, Jessica Chastain did a one on one interview with Katie Couric on her show. She talks about the first time she knew she wanted to be an actor, Oscar season, love (surprise!) and of course Zero Dark Thirty. Watch the videos below courtesy of Jessica-Chastain.com

Part 1:

Part 2:

Jessica also did a Q and A with the Film Society of Lincoln Center on Friday Feb. 8th. She talks lovingly about her Juilliard experience as well as the films and roles she has done.  I always love hearing her process of getting to know her characters.  In particular, how she found or understood Celia Foote when she visited Sugar Ditch, MS.  Very interesting!

Jessica and Ellen

Jessica Chastain Interview Feb 05 2013 by thecrackedactor

ZD30 Gets Support from 9/11 Families

 The group 9/11 Parents and Families of Firefighters and WTC Victims came out Thursday (Jan. 31) in support of Kathryn Bigelow's film Zero Dark Thirty.  The group issued a statement denouncing what they view as critics' "censorship" of the hotly debated torture scenes depicted in the movie.  The group called out Senators John McCain, Dianne Feinstein and Carl Levin (who are opening an investigation of the film) and actors David Clennon, Ed Asner and Martin Sheen (who called out to Oscar voters to boycott the film).  Mr. Sheen has since recanted his stance towards the film.

Here is the full statement:

As a group of 9/11 families sharing a rare moment of justice and elation in the viewing of a film chronicling the search for and ultimate death of Osama Bin Laden, we find it deeply disturbing that some of our elected officials want to discourage other 9/11 families and the public from seeing this outstanding film. Politicians who have criticized the movie and made misleading claims about it, stand in the way of engaging a public dialogue for a stirring film which invokes feelings of patriotism and perseverance and honors our military, our country, and the victims of 9/11.

We are greatly concerned that a few pundits, "film critics" and elected officials are badmouthing this movie because of the water boarding scenes and because this film directly confronts the enduring terrorist threat.

We feel this is history - like it or not -and no effort should be made to rewrite or censor it for political correctness. Certainly there should be no organized boycott or suppression of films based on political differences. The word for that is "censorship." How bizarre that members of an industry that suffered so much during the McCarthy era would even consider doing this to their own members!

The use of the term "torture" by elected officials in hopes of dissuading people to endorse or view this film is antithetical to what our government should be all about.

As 9/11 family members whose loved ones were massacred at Ground Zero on September 11, 2001, we applaud Mark Boal and Katherine Bigelow for presenting a film that honors history, our military, our country, and the victims of 9/11 - through the excellent portrayal of how the US government and Navy Seals worked to apprehend OBL. There is still a constitutional right to freedom of speech in our country, and censoring a film is totally un American and against the tenets of our founding fathers. This film inspires dialogue and no elected official can censor any film. We do not want to allow Senators Feinstein, Levin, and McCain or actors David Clennon and9/11 Truthers Ed Asner and Martin Sheen - to inhibit our fellow Americans from seeing " Zero Dark Thirty." Our loved ones died for these freedoms on 9/11 - and no one should ever try to abridge them. All citizens should see this film and make their own decisions about its value. This is what democracy is about.

Source: here
(photo from IMDB.com)

Martin Sheen Recants Opposition to Zero Dark Thirty

 

 

If you were living under a rock lately during this Awards season then you weren't aware that the movie Zero Dark Thirty (the most critically acclaimed film of the year w/ a score of 95% on Metacritic) has fallen off it's front runner position since it opened in limited release in December 2012.  It has much to do with people saying that it "glorifies torture" so much so that around Jan.13, actors Ed Asner, David Clennon and Martin Sheen drafted a petition and called on Oscar voters to boycott Zero Dark Thirty for any of the categories it was nomintated.  Specifically saying "We hope that ‘Zero’ will not be honored by Academy (or Guild) members”.  You can read more about it here.

 

Yesterday (1/30), however, The NY Times reports that actor Martin Sheen has said that "he did not believe that Oscar voters or anyone else should shun “Zero Dark Thirty.”  He further states that he shared Ms. Bigelow’s expressed opposition to the use of torture, and said that the film had “done great, great service to the issue” by bringing it to the fore. Mr. Sheen said he had watched the movie weeks ago and “was very moved and troubled by it.”  Read the full report here.

 

My question is.....if he saw the movie weeks ago, why is this recanting just coming out now?  A bit irresponsible I would say (how can you not be aware of a petition you agreed to and signed?) and a little too late the damage has been done!

Michael Moore's In Defense of Zero Dark Thirty

 

 

Michael Moore came out the other day in support for Kathryn Bigelow's critically acclaimed but now much maligned film, Zero Dark Thirty.  We are posting it here in full:

 

"There comes a point about two-thirds of the way through 'Zero Dark Thirty' where it is clear something, or someone, on high has changed. The mood at the CIA has shifted, become subdued. It appears that the torture-approving guy who's been president for the past eight years seems to be, well, gone. And, just as a fish rots from the head down, the stench also seems to be gone. Word then comes down that – get this! – we can't torture any more! The CIA agents seem a bit disgruntled and dumbfounded. I mean, torture has worked soooo well these past eight years! Why can't we torture any more???

The answer is provided on a TV screen in the background where you see a black man (who apparently is the new president) and he's saying, in plain English, that America's torturing days are over, done, finished. There's an "aw, shit" look on their faces and then some new boss comes into the meeting room, slams his fist on the table and says, essentially, you've had eight years to find bin Laden – and all you've got to show for it are a bunch of photos of naked Arab men peeing on themselves and wearing dog collars and black hoods. Well, he shouts, those days are over! There's no secret group up on the top floor looking for bin Laden, you're it, and goddammit do your job and find him.

He is there to put the fear of God in them, probably because his boss, the new President, has (as we can presume) on his first day in office, ordered that bin Laden be found and killed. Unlike his frat boy predecessor who had little interest in finding bin Laden (even to the point of joking that "I really just don’t spend that much time on him"), this new president was not an imbecile and all about business. Go find bin Laden – and don't use torture. Torture is morally wrong. Torture is the coward's way. C'mon – we're smart, we're the USA, and you're telling me we can't find a six-and-a-half-foot tall Saudi who's got a $25 million bounty on his head? Use your brains (like I do) and, goddammit, get to work!

And then, as the movie shows, the CIA abruptly shifts from torture porn to – are you sitting down? – detective work. Like cops do to find killers. Bin Laden was a killer – a mass killer – not a general of an army of soldiers, or the head of a country call Terrorstan. He was a crazed religious fanatic, a multi-millionaire, and a punk who was part of the anti-Soviet mujahideen whom we trained, armed and funded in Afghanistan back in the '80s. But he was a godsend and a very useful tool to the Dick Cheneys and Don Rumsfields of the world. They could hold him up to a frightened American public and scare the bejesus out of everyone – and everyone (well, most everyone) would then get behind the effort to declare war on, um ... well ... Who exactly do we declare war against? Oh, right – Terrorism! The War on Terrorism! So skilled were the men from Halliburton, et al. that they convinced the Congress and the public to go to war against a noun. Terrorism. People fell for it, and these rich men and their friends made billions of dollars from "contracting" and armaments and a Burger King on every Iraqi base. Billions more were made creating a massive internal spying apparatus called "Homeland Security." Business was very, very good, and as long as the boogieman (Osama) was alive, the citizenry would not complain one bit.

I think you know what happens next. In the final third of 'Zero Dark Thirty,' the agents switch from torture to detective work – and guess what happens? We find bin Laden! Eight years of torture – no bin Laden. Two years of detective work – boom! Bin Laden!

And that really should be the main takeaway from 'Zero Dark Thirty': That good detective work can bring fruitful results – and that torture is wrong.

Much of the discussion and controversy around the film has centered on the belief that the movie shows, or is trying to say, that torture works. They torture a guy for years and finally, while having a friendly lunch with him one day, they ask him if he would tell them the name of bin Laden's courier. Either that, or go back and be tortured some more. He says he doesn't know the guy but he knows his fake name and he gives them that name. The name turns out to be correct. Torture works!

But then we learn a piece of news: The CIA has had the name of this guy all along! For ten years! And how did they get this name ten years ago? From "a tip." A random tip! No torture involved. But, as was the rule during those years of incompetency and no desire to find bin Laden, the tip was filed away somewhere in some room – and not discovered until 2010. So, instead of torturing hundreds for eight years to find this important morsel of intelligence, they could have found it in their own CIA file cabinet in about eight minutes. Yeah, torture works.

In the movie, after they have the name of the courier, they then believe if they find him, they find bin Laden. So how do they find him? They bribe a Kuwaiti informant with a new car. That's right, they find the number of the courier's family by giving the guy a Lamborghini. And what do they do when they find the courier's mother? Do they kidnap and torture her to find out where her son is? Nope, they just listen in on his weekly call home to Mom, and through that, they trace him to Pakistan and then hire a bunch of undercover Pakistani Joe Fridays to follow this guy's every move – which, then, leads them to the infamous compound in Abbottabad where the Saudi punk has holed up.

Nice police work, boys!

Oh – and girl. 'Zero Dark Thirty' – a movie made by a woman (Kathryn Bigelow), produced by a woman (Megan Ellison), distributed by a woman (Amy Pascal, the co-chairman of Sony Pictures), and starring a woman (Jessica Chastain) is really about how an agency of mostly men are dismissive of a woman who is on the right path to finding bin Laden. Yes, guys, this is a movie about how we don't listen to women, how hard it is for them to have their voice heard even in these enlightened times. You could say this is a 21st century chick flick – and it would do you well to see it.

But back to the controversy and the torture. I guess where I part with most of my friends who are upset at this film is that they are allowing the wrong debate to take place. You should NEVER engage in a debate where the other side defines the terms of the debate – namely, in this case, to debate "whether torture works." You should refuse to participate in that discussion because the real question should be, simply, "is torture wrong?" And, after watching the brutal behavior of CIA agents for the first 45 minutes of the film, I can't believe anyone of conscience would conclude anything other than that this is morally NOT right. You will be repulsed by these torture scenes because, make no mistake about it, this has been done in your name and mine and with our tax dollars. We funded this.

If you allow the question to be "did torture work?" then you'll lose because yes, if you torture someone who actually has the information, they will eventually give it to you. The problem is, the other 99 who don't know anything will also tell you anything to get you to stop torturing – but their information is wrong. How do you know which one of the 100 is the man with the goods? You don't.

But let's grant the other side that maybe, occasionally, torture "works." Here's what else will work: castrating pedophiles. Why don't we do that? Probably because we think it's morally wrong. The death penalty sure works. Put a murderer in a gas chamber and I can guarantee you he'll never murder again. But is it right? Do we accomplish the ends we seek by becoming the murderers ourselves? That should be our only question.

After I saw 'Zero Dark Thirty,' a friend asked me, "During the torture scenes, who did you feel empathy for the most – the American torturer or the Arab suspect?" That was easy to answer. "Oh, God, the poor guy being waterboarded. The torturer was a sadist."

"Yes, that's the answer everyone gives me afterward. The movie actually makes you care for the tortured guys who may have, in fact, been part of 9/11. Like rooting for the Germans on the submarine to make it back to port in 'Das Boot,' that's the sign of some great filmmaking when the writer and director are able to get you to empathize with the person you've been told everywhere else to hate."

'Zero Dark Thirty' is a disturbing, fantastically-made movie. It will make you hate torture. And it will make you happy you voted for a man who stopped all that barbarity – and who asked that the people over at Langley, like him, use their brains.

And that's what worked.

P.S. One final thought. I've heard fellow lefties say that even if the filmmakers didn't intend to endorse torture (Bigelow called torture "reprehensible" on Colbert the other night), the average person watching the movie is going to take it the wrong way. I believe it is the responsibility of the filmmaker attempting to communicate something that they do so clearly and skillfully (and you can decide for yourself if Bigelow and Boal did so. For me, they did.). But I never blame the artist for failing to dumb down their work so that the lesser minds among us "get it." Should Springsteen not have named his album 'Born in the USA' because some took it to be as a salute to patriotism (Reagan wanted to use it in his 1984 reelection campaign but Bruce said no)?"

 

 

Source: MichaelMoore.com

(photo above from The Hollywood Reporter)



 



Maya and Bigelow Threaten the Status Quo

 

 

I'd like to point out this brilliant article about Zero Dark Thirty's fall from Oscar grace as it threatens the status quo.  It's written by Sasha Stone from Awards Daily.  An excerpt is below but you can read the whole post here.

 

 

"Zero Dark Thirty represents a revolutionary idea — a woman who doesn’t need any man to come in and rescue her. Moreover, she’s the ball buster in the room. She’s the one who says it’s time to put the pressure on (a reminder that I am looking at the film as art and not debating torture) and she’s the one who sticks to her guns when the men want to turn tail and run. We spend much of the time on Maya’s face, watching her thought processes as she works it out, as she zeros in on her target.

At the end of the day, no one really knows what to do with this character. We prefer movies where the men fix everything because that’s what we’re used to, that supposedly controls the box office, that is the status quo that has been choking the life out of modern Hollywood. What do we do when a whole movie is about the internal life of a female character that isn’t a positive experience? By the end of Zero Dark Thirty Maya has done her job and done it well, as she had been trained to do by the CIA but that doesn’t mean she’s happy. There are no knights in shining armor to rescue her. She doesn’t get a pat on the back and a gold star. She doesn’t right the wrongs of our society. She suffers silently, alone, with nowhere to put her own torment."

She adds on further:

"Zero Dark Thirty is threatening in many ways that have nothing to do with torture. It is quietly the only film in the Oscar race by a woman and about a woman. Yes, the screenplay was written by a man but the uniqueness of the Bigelow/Chastain collaboration should not be discounted, particularly when we are in the rut we’ve been in for the past two years, where the majority of movies that land in the Oscar race are by and about men featuring men doing great things and women being subdued and supportive in the background. It feels like the 1950s all over again — except for back then movies like All About Eve were winning Best Picture."

In relation to this, Kathryn Bigelow started this Thunderclap campaign to support the crucial role of women in America's national security.  There are 2 days left for this campaign.  Please support it by joining here.

(photo from IMDB.com)

TIME on Bigelow's Art of Darkness

 

 

There is a great cover article about Kathryn Bigelow on TIME Magazine.  Apparently she is only the second female director to grace the cover of TIME.  The other one is Jodie Foster.  You can read her interview here.  Meanwhile, Forbes Magazine has a very interesting take on her and "What Kathryn Bigelow Can Teach Us About Facing Critics".  It was in observation to her appearance on CBS Morning and the Colbert Report (w/c Lani posted here). 

 

(Photo from Time Magazine)

Kathryn Bigelow with Stephen Colbert

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Chastain: Box Office Queen

 

 

 

OK I was going to try to avoid  a post about Jessica Chastain (just to break the monotony) but this one couldn't be avoided because of it's rarity.

 

It's been talk of the blogosphere and twitterverse that Jessica Chastain dominated the box office this weekend!  Her film Mama where she plays a punk rock bass player charged with taking care of two feral children earned the top spot at the box office during this extended MLK weekend.  It is projected to earn $33 million for the extended weekend.  Previously, bloggers were worried that Mama could be Chastain's "Norbit" (you know, the awful Eddie Murphy movie that came out around the same time as Dreamgirls.  Some people believe it cost him the Oscar).  Surprisingly this Guillermo Del Toro produced horror flick gained favorable reviews in several publications with critics like Richard Roper and The Hollywood Reporter plus it's getting a 62 % fresh rating in Rotten Tomatoes.  Clearly, Chastain's knack of choosing her projects have paid out. 

 

Coming second at the box office is her nominated and critically acclaimed Zero Dark Thirty (my review soon to follow) which earned $17.6 million (it's cumulative total is now $ 56 million).  Both films beat out the Walhberg/Russell Crowe Broken City and Schwarzenneger The Last Stand.  Websites such as EW, Awards Daily, Rope of Silicon and The Wrap who follow the Oscar race have stated that this 1-2 punch at the box office is a rare occurrence where the same actor plays the lead in two distinctly different movies (franchise or non-franchise).    All this while she's still starring on Broadway in The Heiress during this crucial Oscar season!

 

Addendum (1/22/2013, 11:53 pm): It also appears that post-Golden Globes win, Ms. Chastain's play The Heiress earned a 13.7% bump in the box office selling out all shows this past weekend.  The play earned $ 150K more than the week before.  Read it here.

 

(photo above from IMDB.com)

 



SAG: Conversations with Jessica Chastain

"If you do the work even though no one is watching, luck will eventually find you." -- Jessica Chastain

The quote above was the parting words Jessica Chastain gave to actors and SAG members who attended a Q & A with the award winning actress yesterday (Jan 17).  The event was sponsored by the SAG Foundation and was streamed live but fortunately for us, made available on their youtube channel.

I love hearing actors talk about their process and how they find their characters.  I don't know why but I just do.  Having heard her Golden Globe speech where she talks about struggling and fighting for roles, it's particularly interesting when you hear her talk more specifically about her first few years in the business and her big reality check when she moved to LA after Drama School ( around 20:00 min).  What is even more impressive is even in those years of constant rejection, she remained focused and constantly challenged herself, working on her craft even when no one was watching.  It makes you understand how she evolved into this extraordinary actress who is able to transform with every role.

In the Q & A clip, she also talks about getting her SAG card by being in an episode of ER back in 2004.  She played a girl who tried to keep her abusive father alive so he can feel pain.  Here is that episode:



And so, here she is again in yet another transformation for her movie MAMA which opens today, Jan. 18:

Jessica and J Stew

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A Class Act

We here at Stage-Notes are so happy that Broadway's Jessica Chastain won Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama for Zero Dark Thirty at the Golden Globes last Sunday (Jan. 13).  Visibly moved, she gave a heartfelt and classy acceptance speech.  Incidentally, she also won Best Actress at the Critics Choice on Thursday (Jan. 10) and like a true theatre nerd, quoted Brecht!  To view that acceptance speech, click here. 

We wish her all the luck this awards season!



Here's a clip of her in the Golden Globes Press Room Q & A.  OK, I admit that I am biased but just listen to her answers.  So insightful, intelligent and answered with poise.  If you can't hear the questions, they are:

>  how would she respond to the movie creating controversy
>  where does she think Maya goes
>  what were her struggles as an actress that she eluded to in her acceptance speech -- even answering this she gets teary eyed
>  reaction to Jodie Foster's speech
>  reaction to her Oscar nomination and Kathryn Bigelow snub
>  How she interpreted Maya
>  How she selects roles
>  What was Kathryn Bigelow's reaction to the Oscar snub

Oscar Campaign Game Plans

(photo from Goldderby.com)

 

 

I didn't realize how complicated can this Oscar campaign season be with so many films equally as good for Best Picture.  Here's a very interesting article from the LA Times about the Oscar game plans of the Best Picture contenders.

At This Performance

(This post was originally published on Dec. 27, 2012 but I'm reposting for updates)

Playbill just announced that Jessica Chastain will be missing three shows of her play The Heiress this January.  The actress has been nominated for the Critics Choice, Golden Globes and SAG Awards for her work in Kathryn Bigelow's film Zero Dark Thirty.  Mairin Lee will be performing the role of Catherine Sloper on Jan. 10 (Critics Choice), Jan. 13 (Golden Globes) and Jan. 27 (SAG Awards).  You can read more about it here.

In early December when nominations for these awards came out, she was interviewed in USA today where she relayed concerns about balancing her Broadway duties and the award shows:

 "I don't want to let anyone down," she says. "However, we have a really great group of people and (they are) so supportive. I'm stressed out about the possibility of missing a show, but I have an amazing, amazing understudy and I'm really proud of her for being able to make her Broadway debut, because she's incredibly talented."

(photo from NYMag)

Addendum (Jan 5, 2013):  It's also been announced by BWW that she will also miss the Jan. 8 performance to attend the National Board of Review Awards since they voted her as Best Actress for this season.  Read more about it here. 

ICYMI: Chastain One on One with Charlie Rose

I can't believe I'm going to admit this but thanks to twitter, I was able to set my dvr on time to catch the one on one interview of Jessica Chastain on Charlie Rose.  The interview was broadcast last Thursday (Dec. 13) on PBS/Bloomberg.  In the first segment she talks about her new movie Zero Dark Thirty which just opened in NYC and LA (wide release is Jan 11, 2013).  The second half she talks about her journey as a child longing to act to auditioning for Juillard and eventually becoming a working actress.  What I found really interesting was how she was able to eloquently articulate about her process of finding and becoming the character.  No wonder she seamlessly disappears into her varied roles!  Not just a talented actress but what a smart and perceptive woman.  It's one of the best interviews I've ever seen.   Click on the photo above to view the video.

(photo from CharlieRose.com)

ICYMI: Jessica Chastain on Chelsea Lately

 

 

The Heiress leading lady Jessica Chastain was back on the west coast for the LA Premiere of her new movie Zero Dark Thirty last Monday (12/10).  She also had time to drop by Chelsea Lately for this interview about filming ZD30.  She talks about filming in a different land and some giggle moments she had during The Heiress.  That was too cute not to post so click on the photo above to view the video.

 

 

In the photo above, she's with mother-daughter thespians (and one of my favorites), Rosemary Harris and Jennifer Ehle at the ZD30 Premiere after party.  Jennifer Ehle is one of her co-stars in the movie.  For more photos of the Zero Dark Thirty Premiere, please click here and for the after party, click here.

 

(photos from Jessica-Chastain.com)



For Your Consideration

The Awards season is in full swing starting this past Monday (Dec. 3) when the New York Film Critics Circle came out with their winners for the year.  It was then followed on Dec. 5 by the National Board Review Awards.  Here are a sample of the "For Your Consideration" print campaign:

National Board Review gave Les Mis the Best Ensemble Award

Zero Dark Thirty is off to a good start winning Best Picture, Director (Kathryn Bigelow) and Cinematography (Greig Fraser) at NYFCC and followed that up with a Best Pic, Director and Best Actress (Jessica Chastain) at the National Board Review

Though not a Best Pic contender (well according to the experts),

 this is a good print campaing for The Dark Knight Rises

Lincoln won Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis), Supporting Actress (Sally Fields) and Screenplay (Tony Kushner) at the NYFCC

Marion Cotillard might be another Best Actress

contender for French film Rust and Bone

Argo, a favorite among the critics might win Ben Affleck his Oscar for Direction

Silver Linings Playbook already won a

Best Actor (Bradley Cooper) Award from the National Board Review

but Jennifer Lawrence is also considered the Best Actress front runner this year by the experts

 

 

List of dates for Nominations and Awards shows are as follows:

 

December 5. The National Board of Review announces nominations.

December 9. Los Angeles Film Critics will announce its awards.

December 10. The American Film Institute will honor its Top 10 films of 2012.

December 11. Broadcast Film Critics Association nominees for the 18th Annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards will be announced.

December 12. Screen Actors Guild Awards nominees will be announced.

December 13. Golden Globe nods live at 8 a.m. on NBC.

December 16. Satellite Awards presentation.

January 3. The Producers Guild of America will announce nominees / Nominees for the Writers Guild of America Awards announced.

January 8. Directors Guild Awards will announce the five Feature Film nominees / The National Board of Review awards ceremonies.

January 10. Academy Awards -- Nominations announced 5:30 a.m., PT. / Critics’ Choice Movie Awards (broadcast on CW network 8:00-10:00 p.m. ET)

January 13. Golden Globes live on NBC.

January 26. Producers Guild of America awards ceremonies.

January 27. Screen Actors Guild Awards on TNT and TBS at 8 p.m. (ET)

February 3. Directors Guild Awards presented at annual dinner.

February 17. Writers Guild of America Awards will be given out.

February 24. The 85th Academy Awards (aired by ABC network)

 

This is one exciting season!  Good luck to everyone!

 

(photos from IMDB.com)



Jessica Chastain Talks About Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty had their Press Junket on Monday (12/3) at the Ritz Carlton in NYC. Below is a video of Jessica Chastain discussing her upcoming movie by Kathryn Bigelow with the Associated Press:



Here's another video of Jessica Chastain at the Zero Dark Thirty Screening Q & A in LA held Nov. 25th. Here she discusses getting her first call from Kathryn Bigelow to discuss possible casting in the film. Check out her very funny anecdote: