Awards

2009 Cinema Eye Honors Winners

by James McNally on March 29, 2009

in Awards,Documentaries

Cinema Eye Honors trophies

Tonight was the second annual Cinema Eye Honors cere­mony, held in New York City. The Cinema Eye Honors were cre­ated last year by AJ Schnack with the sup­port of Thom Powers and Indiepix as a response to what they felt was an unfair eli­gib­ility policy for doc­u­mentary films to be con­sidered for the Academy Awards. It seems a bit strange, then, that three of the four films hon­oured tonight were con­tenders for Oscars this year (although Waltz with Bashir (review) was nom­in­ated in the Best Foreign Language Film cat­egory). That being said, I’m so glad that Yung Chang’s Up the Yangtze (review) got some deserved atten­tion after being over­looked by the Academy.

Here is the full list of win­ners from tonight’s ceremony:

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Filmmaking

Man on Wire (review) pro­duced by James Marsh and Simon Chinn

Outstanding Achievement in Direction

Ari Folman, Waltz with Bashir

Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography

Peter Zeitlinger, Encounters at the End of the World

Outstanding Achievement in Editing

Jinx Godfrey, Man on Wire

Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design and Animation

Yoni Goodman, Waltz with Bashir

Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition

Max Richter, Waltz with Bashir

Outstanding Achievement in International Feature

Waltz with Bashir, dir­ected by Ari Folman and pro­duced by Ari Folman, Serge Lalou, Gerhard Meixner, Yael Nahlieli and Roman Paul

Outstanding Achievement in Debut Feature

Yung Chang, Up the Yangtze

Audience Choice Prize

Up the Yangtze, Yung Chang

Tagged as: cinemaeyehonors

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Not Another Post on the Oscar Noms!

by James McNally on January 22, 2009 · 1 comment

in Awards,Oscars

This morning’s Academy Award nom­in­a­tions really drove home to me why I write this blog. I am not embar­rassed to tell you that I have yet to see any of the films nom­in­ated for Best Picture. That’s not to say that I won’t see them at some point. But I’ve come to under­stand that I just don’t care about keeping up with the flood of new releases or rushing to see every nom­in­ated film before the awards are announced.

I will dis­cover the great films the way I’ve always dis­covered them, and in the same way that I find great music, or lit­er­ature. Not (neces­sarily) from awards or year-end lists, but in my own time and in my own way. Maybe it will be through a friend’s recom­mend­a­tion, or an inter­esting review, or a con­nec­tion with another film or actor or director.

But I don’t want this blog to try to “cover” the big news the way that so many other blogs do. They do it quicker, and bigger, and better most of the time.

The title “Toronto Screen Shots” may make this site sound like a gen­eric (if local) film blog, but the truth is that it’s a per­sonal site, with my idio­syn­cratic tastes on full display.

Instead of posting the nom­in­a­tions and carping about them, like hun­dreds of other sites will be doing today, I’m simply going to let it pass. If some­thing shiny appears in the corner of my eye, I’ll let you know about it, as always, but it’s become clear to me that I’m just not qual­i­fied to talk about the Oscars right now when I’ve seen so few of the nom­in­ated films.

The media gen­er­ally like to whip up the hype to make everyone think that this year’s nom­inees are among the greatest works of art ever com­mitted to film. When you take the long view back into his­tory, and the broad view around the world, you realize how ridicu­lous that really is.

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Cinema Eye Honors 2009 Nominees Announced

by James McNally on January 20, 2009

in Awards,Documentaries

AJ Schnack announced the nom­inees for the second annual Cinema Eye Honors yes­terday at Sundance. The awards cere­mony will be held in New York City on Sunday March 29, 2009.

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Filmmaking

  • Man on Wire, dir­ected by James Marsh and pro­duced by Simon Chinn (review)
  • My Winnipeg, dir­ected by Guy Maddin and pro­duced by Jody Shapiro and Phyllis Laing
  • The Order of Myths, dir­ected by Margaret Brown and pro­duced by Margaret Brown and Sara Alize Cross
  • Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, dir­ected by Marina Zenovich and pro­duced by Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, Lila Yacoub and Marina Zenovich
  • Waltz with Bashir, dir­ected by Ari Folman and pro­duced by Ari Folman, Serge Lalou, Gerhard Meixner, Yael Nahlieli and Roman Paul (review)

Outstanding Achievement in Direction

Outstanding Achievement in Production

Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography

Outstanding Achievement in Editing

Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design and Animation

Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition

Outstanding Achievement in International Feature

Outstanding Achievement in Debut Feature

Audience Choice Prize

UPDATE: AJ has posted video of the nom­in­a­tions announce­ment.

Tagged as: cinemaeyehonors

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Cinema Eye Honors 2009 Shortlist Announced

by James McNally on January 8, 2009

in Awards,Documentaries

The Cinema Eye Honors, doc­u­mentary awards organ­ized by AJ Schnack and Indiepix for the first time last year, are returning this March and the short­list has just been announced. Here are the lucky films:

I was actu­ally strangely excited by the fact that I’d only seen five of the nom­in­ated films. It just shows how much great work is being pro­duced each year. I’m looking for­ward to seeing a few more of these soon, hope­fully before the awards are announced in New York City on March 29th.

Tagged as: cinemaeyehonors

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AV Club Picks Worst Films of 2008

by James McNally on December 17, 2008

in Awards

Well, because someone actu­ally had to watch them, the Onion AV Club has help­fully assembled their list of the Worst Films of 2008. I’m happy to report that I haven’t seen any of the 17 tur­keys on this list, but it was inter­esting that they cover the gamut from red­neck comedy to ser­ious indie art films. Thanks, AV Club, for saving me many wasted hours and dol­lars. Although I must admit that the reviews do make me a tiny bit curious to see just how bad some of these are.

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