Flashback Friday: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Jackson, 2003)

Three things the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences tend to avoid when choosing their Oscar winners: fantasies, sequels, and multiple wins for a single movie. But in 2003, all expectations and prior records were shattered when a threequel managed to win Best Picture, Best Director, and nine other awards at the 76th Academy Awards. With almost $3 billion in the worldwide box office, $1.1 billion of which belongs to the Best Picture winner, this is a film that virtually everyone saw and critics universally adored. There's a reason it ties for winning the most Oscars in the Academy's history. Today on Flashback Friday, we're looking at Peter Jackson's final installment in the film trilogy to define a decade: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King took home 11 Academy Awards on February 29, 2004. Only Ben-Hur and Titanic have matched Return of the King for the amount of Oscars won. This huge achievement is accredited to director Peter Jackson's tireless efforts to create of the most visually stunning, hugely expansive epics of modern film history.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which began in 2001 with The Fellowship of the Ring and continued with The Two Towers in 2002, is based on the best-selling novels by J.R.R. Tolkien of the same name. A highly influential fantasy masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings is the adventures of the Fellowship of the Ring, set out to protect the Hobbit named Frodo in his quest to destroy the highly powerful One Ring. The prophecy goes that the One Ring will rule all forces of Middle Earth. If its evil creator, Sauron, gets a hold of it, he will use it to conquer Middle Earth.

Frodo and Sam go alone to destroy the One Ring

Frodo is tasked with destroying this Ring, with the help of his best friend, the loyal and courageous Samwise "Sam" Gamgee; the wise wizard Gandalf; the Ranger with royal blood, Aragorn; the bow-and-arrow-wielding Elf, Legolas; the Dwarf warrior Gimli; the Captain of Gondor, Boromir; and the troublesome but brave and loyal Hobbits Merry and Pippin. Together, they are known as the Fellowship of the Ring.

After the events of the previous two films separates the Fellowship, two parallel stories tells of Man's conquest over the armies of the corrupt wizard Saruman's Isengard and Sauron's Mordor, and Frodo's journey to destroy the Ring in the fires of Mordor. Aragorn must reclaim his royal title by assuming the Kingdom of Gondor, a role he has forsaken since his ancient heir's weakness during the first war with Sauron. Gandalf, meanwhile, tries to defend Gondor's capital, the White City of Minas Tirith, with the aid of Pippin and Boromir's troubled brother, Faramir. A huge Orc army lies in wait out side the capital, and Gondor is left alone and virtually defenseless after the city's steward, Denethor, goes mad. With the Ringwraith Nazgul (Sauron's demon-like servants whose sole purpose is to find the Ring) and their death-defying leader, the Witch King, launching an all-out assault on the last defense of Gondor, the future of Man and Middle Earth is in grave danger.

Andy Serkis' performance as Gollum has been
recognized for it's innovations in motion picture capture

Meanwhile, Frodo and Sam enter a Faustian bargain with Gollum, a twisted former owner of the One Ring who's obsessed and mad with the Ring's allure. Gollum leads them on a treacherous path to Mordor, while secretly plotting the Hobbit's death. With the armies of Middle Earth losing more and more each day, Frodo only has a short time to destroy the Ring, and end Sauron's dominion over the world.

Sadly, that's only the surface-level plot of the film franchise. All three films have run times of almost three hours each, with The Return of the King surpassing them all with a whopping 200 minutes of footage (and that's not even counting the Expanded Editions of the films; that Return lasts approximately 268 minutes). But don't judge the movies solely on their duration; every minute of this fantasy is worth seeing.

At the time of its release, The Lord of the Rings trilogy was the only franchise in history to be filmed at the same time. All three movies were written together, shot together, and produced together. It was divided up into three installments, with final scenes different than the original endings of each of the novels. Each went through a lucrative design process by Weta Workshop, and were each shot in the beautiful landscapes of New Zealand.

Minas Tirith, designed by the Oscar-winning
 Weta Workshop 

The visual effect shots were seamlessly added to the final cuts, and the series has been noted for this innovation. However, unlike most modern day productions, nearly everything in Middle Earth was built and constructed on the set. The Hobbit homes, city miniatures, and characters are all real. Howard Shore orchestrated the score, a beautiful soundtrack that won him an Oscar.

The characters of the film were played by an ensemble cast, including Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, John Rhys-Davies, Sean Astin, Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett, Andy Serkis, Liv Tyler, Hugo Weaving, Karl Urban, John Noble, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, Sean Bean, Brad Dourif, David Wenham, Lawrence Makoare, Ian Holm, and Christopher Lee. And that's just the principal characters. An unbelievable feat in all-star casting that really paid off; the characters and the chemistry between them is both memorable and Oscar-worthy. Ironically, despite the numerous accolades for the film, The Return of the King received no acting nominations (the only acting nomination in the whole series was for Best Supporting Actor for Ian McKellen in The Fellowship of the Ring).

The stunning visual effects of the film were
significant in the Battle of Pelennor

By the time Oscar night came around, as host Billy Crystal said, "There (was) no one left to thank in New Zealand." The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won 11 Academy Awards out of 11 nominations, tying for the most-winning single film and setting the record for the highest sweep by winning every category for which it was nominated. In the end, the movie won every technical award (minus Best Cinematography, for which it was not nominated): Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Original Song ("Into the West"), Best Visual Effects, Best Makeup, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Editing.

Unlike several other Best Picture winners, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was easily recognized as the greatest movie of 2003. Also, the film's victory commemorated the whole trilogy, as opposed to just the final movie (even though both of the previous film's were also nominated for Best Picture in their respective years). Return of the King's closest competition were the Sofia Coppola movie Lost in Translation and the Clint Eastwood picture Mystic River, neither of which have retained any sort of legacy (Translation has become an art-house favorite, but it polarizes critics and audiences to this day). With The Lord of the Rings, the Academy finally recognized a big-budget movie as their Best Picture winner. 

No other fantasy film in cinematic history has reached the critical and commercial appeal of The Lord of the Rings, and this fact remains evident in the startling number of wins for the series' final installment. Among the best movies of the past twenty years, the magic of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King cannot possibly be replicated.

Thank you, Academy, for getting this one right.

Zero Dark Thirty (Bigelow, 2012)

Millions of stunned Americans woke up on the morning of May 2, 2011 to learn that Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda terrorist leader and the man responsible for 9/11, was killed. Patriotism spread throughout the country, for the man who caused the deaths of thousands of Americans was finally killed. But many do not know the story behind the most wanted man in the world's assassination. It didn't take Hollywood long to want to tell this story, so they turned to the Oscar-winning director of The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow, to do it.

Bigelow traveled across global locales, worked The Hurt Locker writer Mark Boal, and hired actress Jessica Chastain to create a movie that encapsulates the decade-long hunt for bin Laden. The result is Zero Dark Thirty. The ending was known, and the stakes were high. Could Bigelow score another military win, and direct a worthy follow up to the successful Hurt Locker?

Fortunately, Zero Dark Thirty, much like the assassination it describes, is a phenomenal success.

The film captures the intensity, danger, and struggles of finding Osama bin Laden with great skill. It's easily one of the best movies of 2012, and one of the best military movies in years. It even surpasses The Hurt Locker in ambition and raw talent. Zero Dark Thirty is an adventure that cannot be missed.

Jessica Chastain, fresh off a huge year and an Oscar nomination in 2011, plays Maya, a CIA analyst assigned to scramble through all the intelligence related to bin Laden. She heads to Pakistan to work with Dan (Jason Clarke), a CIA officer who delves into extreme interrogation techniques. After months of torturing a detainee, they learn that a man named "Abu Ahmed" is working directly for Osama bin Laden. Maya spends years trying to find Ahmed, rising through ranks and connections but still fixated on finding Ahmed. bin Laden is her whole life; she is totally committed to finding the man, and will stop at nothing to do so. Zero Dark Thirty is the story of Maya's work, and how her involvement ultimately led to the assassination of Osama bin Laden himself.

Typically, knowing the ending of a film ruins the experience. However, Zero Dark Thirty remains a pulse-pounding thriller with so much to offer. Jessica Chastain gives an Oscar-worthy performance that's simultaneously haunted, focused, and intelligent. Chastain, much like her female director, is a dedicated woman that breaks gender stereotypes and provides a character more rounded and intense than most of her male co-stars. Maya is a hero that transcends classification, and joins a limited pantheon of great female action stars.

Zero Dark Thirty stands out by providing such an intense movie for a well-known assault. The thrills are very real, and Bigelow makes the viewer feel the danger of each situation. Even the final assault on Osama bin Laden's lair, the most famous and well-known scene in the film, is a thrilling sequence. It's innovative for its sharp shooting and crisp editing, featuring frequent cuts to night vision while flowing with the pulse of the operation's soldiers. The result is expected, but viewers still sit on the edge of their seat, breathing heavier and heavier with each passing minute. It's an awe-inspiring experience that can be credited to Bigelow's incredible direction.

The accuracy of the film has recently been brought to attention, most notably for its brutal depiction of torture in the United States' Middle Eastern black sites and how Maya's character is actually a  combination of several people (two of which are female). Meanwhile, the United State's military is concerned with the film's portrayal of the assault, and the means by which Bigelow acquired information used in the film. It remains unknown which parts are real and which are entertainment fabrications.

In either case, Zero Dark Thirty is an impressive work of art. The torture scenes, while strikingly violent and disturbing, do attempt to portray how prisoners were treated in United States' detention facilities. Plus, it shows the work of CIA agents well, who work daily by analyzing dozens of documents and files in the hopes of catching a rare break and a possible lead. Maya does justice to the dozens of men and women who were responsible for catching a mass murderer.

If "investigative drama" becomes a popular genre over the next decade, film analysts will have no question in finding the reason behind the genre's success. They'll acknowledge, in complete agreement, the brilliance of Zero Dark Thirty.

Five out of five stars.

Flashback Friday: The Hurt Locker (Bigelow, 2009)

The Oscars are coming up! Over the next few weeks, we'll be taking a look at some of the Academy Award winners for Best Picture. Movie Critic's Club will be analyzing these films just like every other week, but with special attention towards their Oscar victory. We'll be comparing other Best Picture nominees from the same year, and seeing whether or not the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences correctly chose the best film of the respective year. To kick the coverage off, and since Kathryn Bigelow is topping both headlines and box office receipts for this year's Zero Dark Thirty, we're taking a look at her Best Picture-winning film. Today on Flashback Friday, we're looking at 2009's The Hurt Locker.

March 7, 2010 was a day for Oscar history when Barbara Streisand announced Kathryn Bigelow as the winner of the Oscar for Best Director during the 82nd Academy Awards. On that day, Bigelow became the first female to ever win Best Director at the Oscars. Streisand, a frequent Oscar snub, greeted her with open arms. The later win for Best Picture, announced by Tom Hanks, brought The Hurt Locker's total wins to six, out of a possible nine nominations.

History was made, as the white male-oriented Academy finally selected a woman as their winner of this huge award. But was this really the film to start with? Was the direction in The Hurt Locker so magnificent that it warranted an unprecedented win?

The Hurt Locker is the intense thriller about United States Army bomb diffusers in Iraq. After losing their former commander, a bomb squad gets Sgt. William James (Jeremy Renner, nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor for the role) as their new leader. James is an off-the-rails leader, always willing to jump into the middle of a conflict. He's aided by Sgt. J.T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty), who believe that their new leader is unnecessarily risky and over-confident.

James, seemingly psychotic yet still in complete control, leads the team through a series of adventures in the Iraq War. He's waiting to return home, but the longer he stays in the middle of the warfront, the less he wants to leave. For much like the opening quotation states, "War is a drug."

The story is based on the exploits of journalist Mark Boal, who covered bomb squads during the war. Bigelow became fascinated with the concept of what drives the bomb squads to jump into the middle of such an unknown fate. The two paired up to create The Hurt Locker, which explores the psyche of a particular bomb diffuser in the heat of the modern-day Iraq War, something that hadn't really been done by the movies before. Boal wrote the script, eventually winning the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

For the cast, Bigelow wanted relatively unknown actors to add an aura of unpredictability in the film. Jeremy Renner, a former waiter in Hollywood, was chosen for the lead role. He prepared for the part by spending weeks training at a real military institution. His first big acting break, Renner would go on to be nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards, as well as taking on bigger film roles in movies like The Town (nominated for Best Supporting Actor), The Avengers, and the upcoming Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunter. 

The Hurt Locker was shot outside of Jordan, making the scenery and production design extremely authentic. The film is known for long shoots, and exhausting production schedules in the heat of the desert. Chris Innis edited the movie, which creatively broke several conventions to achieve a heightened sense of realism. Frequent cuts, combined with bizarre camera angles, made the movie feel much more real, almost as if the viewer was immersed in the war-zone right along with the characters.

Though some veterans claimed the movie was highly inaccurate, critics were impressed by the intenseness of The Hurt Locker. They felt it was well shot, well acted, and just simply well done. It raked in numerous accolades, including the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts), and the Director's Guild Award for Best Directing in a Motion Picture. Bigelow, Boal, and the movie were all nominated for Golden Globes. Which brings us to the one point of contention in The Hurt Locker's legacy.

In 2009, many were not expecting The Hurt Locker to win most of the awards. While award-darlings Up in the Air, Precious: Based on the novel "Push" by Sapphire, and Inglourious Basterds were all in the competition, no one was expected to beat the visually-stunning, cinematically innovative Avatar. It raked in the highest box office receipt in history, was critically well received, and was nominated for nine Oscars. Avatar was seemingly unstoppable, winning the Golden Globe for Best Picture- Drama, and many thought it would take Oscar gold as well.

While Kathryn Bigelow's win is very impressive and important, James Cameron's work on Avatar is legendary. He completed changed the way we look at movies, and leads the battle for advances in computer animated and IMAX technologies. Avatar was something we've never seen before, forever affecting the cinematic landscape. The Hurt Locker is a necessary look at the United States military in Iraq.

Which begs the question: Who should have won?

Which movie truly is the best motion picture of 2009? Which one will we still be talking about in ten years? There's no way to tell, but it's pretty safe to say that Avatar will one day land on lists of the greatest films ever made. It's simply too important to ignore. But the fact remains that the Academy chose The Hurt Locker to represent the entire cinematic year of 2009. Sure, Avatar has a familiar story, and a predictable ending. By that logic, so did Star Wars. Both changed filmmaking for the future, and both should have been recognized for their work with a Best Picture win.

Bottom line: While I understand the importance of Bigelow's work and win, I cannot agree with the Academy's choice for Best Picture. It's certainly a close second; however, it was not the best film of 2009. I was very glad to see that Kathryn Bigelow won Best Director, and am immensely happy that she was the first woman to do so. Many other woman directors had failed to win before, and Bigelow's win is representative of all of their fine work in cinema.  I'm not saying that she was better than James Cameron for Avatar, but Bigelow certainly deserved the accolade.

Ironically, Bigelow has been considered to be one of the Best Director frontrunners of the year. Unfortunately, she did not receive a nomination for her work in Zero Dark Thirty, though the movie is up for Best Picture.

Only time will tell what the Best Picture of 2009 should have been. But as it stands right now, The Hurt Locker holds that achievement. And as far as the history books are concerned, that's the way it will stay.

70th Golden Globe Award Winners

Last night, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) held their annual Golden Globe Awards, celebrating the best of filmmaking and television in 2012. This blog post will be focusing on the film awards, though for those who are interested, Showtime series Homeland and HBO series Girls won the majority of the Drama and Comedy or Musical TV awards, and HBO movie Game Change won several Miniseries or TV Movie awards. 

Before I get started breaking down the winners, let's just clarify what exactly the Golden Globes are for those who are unsure. The HFPA consists of 93 journalists, journalists from around the world who write entertainment articles in a variety of newspapers and magazines. The only prerequisite for entry is writing four entertainment articles... a year. I'm not even a paid journalist and I try to write at least two entertainment articles a week. I know of journalists who write more than four articles in a day. 

That being said, I enjoy the Golden Globes for what they are: a schmaltzy, entertaining, and oftentimes overrated awards show that features drunken celebrities. It gets viewers excited about the much more legitimate, much more prestigious Academy Awards presentation later this year. The Golden Globes sometimes manages to predict winners of the Oscars, and for that, people view the Golden Globes as an important part of the Awards Season. So, I will demonstrate this aspect by breaking down it's winners and losers, as well as this award's impact on the Academy Awards. For that is the most important trait of the Golden Globes: to get people interested in talking movies, and talking about the ever important award celebrations. 

During last night's presentation of the 70th Golden Globes, Argo took home Best Picture and Best Director, the Globe's two biggest movie prizes. The wins are an important boost for Argo, which was snubbed an Oscar nomination for Best Director last week. Ben Affleck fortunately does not seem too affected, and the stars at the Globes gave him a standing ovation when he managed to beat Steven Spielberg, Kathryn Bigelow, Ang Lee, and Quentin Tarantino for the award. However, although Argo is winning several awards now, don't expect the Academy to choose the film as Best Picture; without a bid for Best Director, the film doesn't stand a chance at winning more than a few constellation prizes. Argo's peak, unfortunately, was last night. 

In the acting categories, Lincoln's titular star Daniel Day-Lewis took the much expected Best Actor-Drama prize, after several punchlines made throughout the night about his uncanny acting ability. Day-Lewis is one of the few certainties this Awards Season, an actor who can seemingly transform into anything thrown at him. His role in Lincoln will likely earn him another Best Actor win at the Academy Awards. Best Actor- Musical or Comedy went to Hugh Jackman in Les Miserables, who beat out favorite Bradley Cooper for Silver Linings Playbook. Both are nominated for an Oscar. 

Heavy favorites Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) and Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook) each won Best Actress- Drama and Best Actress- Musical or Comedy, respectively. Best Actress at the Oscars is coming down between these two leading ladies, both with highly successful years in film. Chastain and Lawrence both deserve to win an Oscar, and in some ways, I wish both could. Their roles are important to breaking down female stereotypes in movies. 

The award for Best Supporting Actor is easily the most wide open race in any category this year. Last night, the HFPA gave Christoph Waltz from Django Unchained the win, though the prize could have gone to any nominee in the category. Waltz, Arkin, Hoffmann, and Jones are returning for the Oscars, in addition to Robert De Niro. The winner at the Academy Awards could be any of these five men, making it easily the most contested category this season. 

Best Supporting Actress went to, no surprise, Anne Hathaway in Les Miserables. Her win is just as guaranteed as Day-Lewis', for she took on a role which forced her to shed weight, shave her hair, and sing one of Broadway's most emotional songs in a single, continuous close-up shot. The Princess of Genovia, as she said, has come a long way. Plus, host Amy Poehler got to poke fun at her for Hathaway's disastrous turn as Oscar host with James Franco. 

According to the HFPA, the Best Foreign Language Film was Amour, and the Best Animated Feature was Brave. Best Screenplay went to Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained. Musically, Life of Pi's composer Mychael Danna beat out John William's score from Lincoln, and a tipsy and excited Adele won Best Original Song with "Skyfall". 

As a show, I enjoyed Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as hosts. They certainly were an improvement over the past three year's host Ricky Gervais, as they were much nicer, funnier, and all around more entertaining. Zingers included a crack about Kathryn Bigelow's "torturous" former marriage to James Cameron, film people mingling with television stars, hosting the show, and Meryl Streep. Jodie Foster won the Cecil B. DeMille honorary award, and gave a touching speech about coming out, time in show business, and her mother. 

Overall, I was impressed by the quality of the awards presentation and the actual winners. I'm looking forward to the rest of Awards Season, because, as of now, it's literally anyone's game. 

Oscar Nominations 2012: A Race of Snubs and Surprises

This Oscar season is shaping up to become one of the most interesting races in years. 2012 was full of great cinema, but the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences can only nominate so many films. Their selections were, mildly put, interesting.  

Lincoln leads the Oscar race with 12 nominations.

This morning, the nominations for the 85th Academy Awards were released, with Lincoln leading the pack at 12 nominations. Life of Pi raked in a close second with 11 nominations, and Les Miserables and Silver Linings Playbook each have 8 nominations a piece. Despite clear frontrunners in sheer number of nominations, no single movie has a solid chance of winning. This is possibly the most wide open race since 2000 (which saw Gladiator for Best Picture and Best Actor, Traffic for Best Director, and Erin Brockovich for Best Actress), and easily one that will be too close to call until the envelopes are opened on February 24th, 2013. 

Though many of the Oscar categories did coincide with predictions, there were several snubs and surprises within the major award nominations announced this morning. Most notably, the nominations for Best Director included Michael Haneke (Amour), Ang Lee (Life of Pi), David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook), Steven Spielberg (Lincoln), and Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild). To the pleasant surprise of its loyal fans, Zeitlin was nominated along with the film for Best Picture and his co-writer Lucy Alibar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Zeitlin snuck in with Haneke, who up until now was a dark horse among the Director race. 

Kathryn Bigelow, thought to be the frontrunner for Best Director,
failed to get a nomination. 

However, Zeitlin's and Haneke's nominations came at a price. Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow were both hugely snubbed for their directorial masterpieces Argo and Zero Dark Thirty. Most predictors, myself included, thought both of their nominations were a lock. The Oscar-winning director of The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow has been making headlines for the controversy of Zero Dark Thirty and for winning several critic's awards. Zero Dark Thirty has been winning most of the Best Picture prizes throughout awards season. But now, though both films gained nominations for Best Picture, neither of them stand much of a chance anymore. The only three films in the eighty-four years of Oscar history to ever win Best Picture without a Best Director nomination were Wings in 1927, Grand Hotel in 1931, and Driving Miss Daisy in 1989. The high rarity of this type of win does not provide good omens for either Argo or Zero Dark Thirty, leaving many predictors in the dust and making the Oscar's top honor anyone's game.  

Amour is only the fifth foreign-language film
ever to be nominated for Best Picture.

The acting nominations were pretty much predictable, with a few surprises and snubs in each of the categories. For Best Actor, John Hawkes, someone everybody thought was going to receive a nomination for his work in The Sessions, was left out in favor of Joaquin Phoenix in The Master. Alongside Phoenix are favorites Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln) and Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook). Best Actress also snubbed a few noteworthy female performances, namely Marion Cotillard for Rust and Bone and Helen Miren for Hitchcock, who both until now have been heavy hitters. In their place, much like Best Director, stands Emmanuelle Riva for Amour and Quvenzhane Wallis for Beasts of the Southern Wild. Riva, at 85, is now the oldest Best Actress nominee ever (though 1997 Best Supporting Actress nominee Gloria Stuart from Titanic was the oldest nominee of all time at 87); Quvenzhane Wallis (pronounced "kwa-vahn-zha-nay"), at 9, is now the youngest Best Actress nominee ever (the youngest nominee of all time was Justing Henry for Best Supporting Actor in Kramer vs. Kramer at 8). Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty and Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook are the two names to keep an eye on for Best Actress. 

Anne Hathaway's performance in Les Miserables is one of the
 only few certainties this Oscar season. 

The category of Best Supporting Actor is easily the closest race this year, with no clear frontrunner in the all-star list. The award can go without regret to Alan Arkin (Argo), Robert de Niro (Silver Linings Playbook), Phillip Seymour Hoffman (The Master), Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln), or Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained). Best Supporting Actress is less decisive, because Anne Hathaway's nomination for Les Miserables pretty much guarantees her a victory in that field. Jacki Weaver got a nice surprise in her nomination for Silver Linings Playbook, though Hathaway's only real competition is Sally Field for Lincoln. Notable snubs in the Supporting races include Javier Bardem and Judi Dench for Skyfall, who both have been receiving numerous awards in recent days, and Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained, though fellow co-star Christoph Waltz received a nomination.   

The Academy Award for Best Picture frequently correlates with not only Best Director, but with Best Screenplay as well. In that case, Django Unchained and Zero Dark Thirty, both up for Best Original Screenplay, and Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Life of Pi, Lincoln, and Silver Linings Playbook, all up for Best Adapted Screenplay, have the edge over fellow Best Picture nominees Amour and Les Miserables. Les Miserables, at first considered to be a major contender and despite numerous nominations, failed to get either a Best Screenplay or Best Director nod, almost certainly ruining its chances to win the big prizes. Quentin Tarantino, though nominated for his writing of Django Unchained, was not nominated for Best Director, hurting his film in its overall presence in the race. 

Silver Linings Playbook has the potential to
take home the rare "Big Five" honor. 

The film to watch out for this season is Silver Linings Playbook. Interestingly enough, it is the first movie since 2004's Million Dollar Baby to be nominated for the top five Academy Awards, better known as "The Big Five": Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay. Plus, it has nominations for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, which makes it the first film since 1981's Red to receive nominations in all four acting categories. With an additional nomination for Best Editing, Silver Linings Playbook could be the first film since 1991's The Silence of the Lambs to win "The Big Five". Only three movies have ever won "The Big Five" (1934's It Happened One Night, 1975's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and 1991's The Silence of the Lambs), and as such it is a highly coveted achievement. The movie faces tough competition, in the form of Best Actor Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln and Best Actress Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty. But, if the Silver Lining's stars and producers campaign hard enough, they could walk away with the top honors. 

Amour is a shoe-in for Best Foreign Language Film, and Wreck-It Ralph will likely take Best Animated Feature. As usual, the technical categories were a mix of random films. Expect Lincoln and Life of Pi to take home most of these awards. Nominated for his score in Lincoln, John Williams is the most nominated person alive today with 48 nominations to his name, though Walt Disney has the most total nominations with 59. Skyfall could sneak in a few awards, especially for Best Original Song, and the Oscar telecast will include a special 50th Anniversary tribute to the James Bond franchise. 

Oscar host Seth MacFarlane co-presented the nominations with actress Emma Stone, and his offbeat humor and well-known passion for pop culture should make him an excellent host. No film is in the lead as of yet, so analysts will keep guessing until Oscar night who will take home Academy Awards.

Movie Critic's Club Awards 2012

And now, here are the winners of the 2012 Movie Critic's Club Awards:

Winners are in boldface.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

• Javier Bardem, Skyfall
• Michael Caine, The Dark Knight Rises
• Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
• Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained
• Tom Hardy, The Dark Knight Rises

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

• Judi Dench, Skyfall
• Sally Field, Lincoln
• Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
• Kerry Washington, Django Unchained
• Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

Best Screenplay

• The Dark Knight Rises- Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, based on a story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer, based on Batman by Bob Kane
• Django Unchained- Quentin Tarantino
• Lincoln- Tony Kushner, based on Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
• Silver Linings Playbook- David O. Russell, based on The Silver Linings Playbook by Mathew Quick
• Wreck-It Ralph- Phil Johnston and Jennifer Lee, based on a story by Phil Johnston, Rich Moore, and Jim Reardon

Best Cinematography

• The Avengers- Seamus McGarvey
• The Dark Knight Rises- Wally Pfister
• Les Miserables- Danny Cohen
• Lincoln- Janusz Kaminski
• Skyfall- Roger Deakins

Best Music

• The Dark Knight Rises
• Django Unchained
• Les Miserables, featuring "Suddenly" performed by Hugh Jackman 
• Men in Black 3, featuring "Back in Time" performed by Pitbull
• Skyfall, featuring "Skyfall" performed by Adele

Best Makeup

• Django Unchained- Heba Thorisdottir
• The Hunger Games- Ve Neill 
• Les Miserables- Lisa Westcott
• Lincoln- Mo Stemen 
• Men in Black 3- Rick Baker

Best Visual Effects

• The Amazing Spider-Man- John Frazier
• The Avengers- Chris Brenczewski
• Les Miserables- Mark Holt
• Men in Black 3- Mark Hawker
• Prometheus- Jalila Otky Rogan

Best Production Design 

• Argo- Sharon Seymour
• The Dark Knight Rises- Nathan Crowley and Kevin Kavanaugh
• Les Miseables- Eve Stewart
• Prometheus- Arthur Max
• Skyfall- Dennis Gassner

Best Editing

• Argo- William Goldenberg
• The Dark Knight Rises- Lee Smith
• Django Unchained- Fred Raskin
• Lincoln- Michael Kahn
• Looper- Bob Ducsay 

Best Actress in a Leading Role

• Anne Hathaway, The Dark Knight Rises
• Scarlett Johansson, The Avengers
• Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
• Helen Miren, Hitchcock
• Naomi Rapace, Prometheus 

Best Actor in a Leading Role

• Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
• Daniel Craig, Skyfall
• Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
• Jamie Foxx, Django Unchained
• Anthony Hopkins, Hitchcock

Best Director

• Tom Hooper, Les Miserables
• Sam Mendes, Skyfall
• Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight Rises
• Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
• Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained

Best Picture

• The Dark Knight Rises
• Django Unchained
• Les Miserables
• Lincoln
• Skyfall

Congratulations to all the winners of the 2012 Movie Critic's Club Awards!!!!!