2013 British Academy Film Awards – winners

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) held the gala ceremony for the 16th Annual EE British Academy Film Awards this evening at London's Royal Opera House.

Ben Affleck's Argo continued its winning ways in winning the top prize of Best Film. It also won for Best Director and Best Editing. It is interesting to see him take yet another Directing award, because he is not nominated for Director at the Academy Awards.

Steven Spielberg's Lincoln had led the field with 10 nominations including Best Film. Its only win, however, was the Best Actor prize for Daniel Day-Lewis.

Tom Hooper's Les Misérables took the biggest number of awards with four. It won for Best Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway), Production Design, Makeup & Hair, and Sound.

Polskich Nagród Filmowych Orły 2013, Eagle Awards for Polish film – nominees

The Polska Akademia Filmowa (Polish Film Academy) have announced the nominees for the 15th edition of the Polskich Nagród Filmowych Orły 2013 (Eagle Awards).

The World War II resistance drama Obława (Manhunt) by Marcin Krzyształowicz led the field with ten nominations, including Best Film, Best Director and Screenplay for Krzyształowicz. It was also nominated in each of the acting categories – Weronika Rosati for Best Actress, Marcin Dorociński for Best Actor, Sonia Bohosiewicz for Best Supporting Actress, and Maciej Stuhr for Best Supporting Actor.

It was followed closely by the nine nominations of Jesteś Bogiem (You Are God) by Leszek Dawid. The film about Poland's influential late-1990s/early-2000s hip-hop crew Paktofonika also picked up mentions for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay.

2013 Scripter Award – winners

Authors Joshuah Bearman and Antonio J. Mendez and screenwriter Chris Terrio received the 25th-annual USC Libraries Scripter Award for their contributions to Argo. Selection committee co-chair Howard Rodman announced the winners at the black-tie event on Saturday, Feb. 9, at USC’s Doheny Memorial Library.

In his acceptance speech, Bearman said, “I think that with adaptation you hope another writer can come and take a look at your work and see a new perspective and add insight, which is certainly the case with Chris Terrio.”

Argo’s Scripter win adds to the growing number of awards for the Warner Bros. film, including the American Film Institute’s Movie of the Year as well as best motion picture in the drama category and best director at last month’s Golden Globes. The film is nominated for seven Academy Awards.

2013 Irish Film & Television Awards – winners

Tonight, the Irish Film and Television Academy held the 10th Annual Irish Film and Television Awards at the Convention Centre Dublin, hosted by Simon Delaney.

What Richard Did led the night in picking up five awards including the award for Best Film. Jack Reynor picked up the award for Actor Lead Film whilst Lenny Abrahamson and Malcolm Campbell picked up IFTAs for Best Director and Script with their fifth IFTA going to Nathan Nugent for Editing Film.

Argo won the IFTA for Best International Film while Daniel Day-Lewis was voted Best International Actor for Lincoln and Marion Cotillard for Best International Actress for her role in Rust and Bone.

Cinema Kabuki, Feb 9-10

The Japan Foundation Toronto presents this year's edition of Cinema Kabuki beginning today. For the first time, the screenings will take place at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.

The films being screening will be Heron Maiden, Hokaibo, Murder in a Hell of Oil, and Kagotsurube. The screenings are of live productions featuring some of today's greatest Kabuki stars, which are now being filmed with the highest resolution cameras for screening in cinemas around the world on state-of-the-art digital projection systems and 6-channel sound.

Oscar-nominated Animated Shorts now available to watch online

All five Oscar-nominated animated short films are now available to watch online for free until the Academy Awards ceremony later this month.

The nominated short films are Adam and Dog by Minkyu Lee; Fresh Guacamole by PES; Head over Heels by Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly; Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare" by David Silverman; and Paperman by John Kahrs.

The 85th Annual Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2012 will be presented on Sunday, February 24, 2013, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center.

Call for submissions: 2013 International Documentary Challenge

The International Documentary Challenge returns for another year of lightning fast filmmaking February 28 - March 4, 2013. Doc Challenge lets you hit the ground running with your crew of filmmakers in order to shoot and edit a documentary film in just five adrenaline-filled days.

You will walk away from the weekend with new skills, a finished product you are proud to screen and the chance at taking home one of over 20 awards including Best Film, POV Award, DER Award and the Audience Award. There are cash prizes for winners and the top twelve films will screen at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto in 2013.

It's real life, filmed real fast. -- REGISTER NOW -- Join filmmakers around the world by making a film for the International Documentary Challenge!

Registration now open for 2013 Toronto Screenwriting Conference

The Toronto Screenwriting Conference has opened registration for their 4th edition of their annual event.

The Toronto Screenwriting Conference (TSC) is a two-day weekend event that brings together screen-based industry professionals and offers them advanced level of education and skills development unparalleled by any other screenwriting event on the continent.

It is designed to inform writers, producers, directors, and development executives working in the film, television and interactive industries through the teachings of expert creative talent, authors and speakers specializing in the craft of writing.

Black Reel Awards 2013 – winners

The Foundation for the Advancement of African-Americans in Film (FAAAF) announced the winners at the MIST Harlem art house theater in New York City yesterday for the 13th Annual Black Reel Awards.

Beasts of the Southern Wild by Benh Zeitlin was the night's big winners. The magical realist story of a young girl in the backwoods of the Louisiana bayou not only won Outstanding Picture, but three other awards as well, including Outstanding Score. Nine-year-old, first-time actress Quvenzhane Wallis came away with both Outstanding Actress and Outstanding Breakthrough Performance.

Ava DuVernay, the writer/director of Middle of Nowhere, also snagged two awards: Outstanding Director and Outstanding Screenplay (Original or Adapted). The film depicts a young woman's anguish caused by her blind devotion to her imprisoned husband. It had led with nine nominations.

The 8 fest 2013, Feb 8-10

The 8 fest returns to Toronto for its sixth year for three nights of screenings and live performances. This year will find the festival at a new licensed venue: Workman Arts Theatre (651 Dufferin Street, just north of Dundas). The 8 fest is one of the only festivals in the world devoted to all forms of small-gauge film, including Super 8, 8mm, 9.5 and loops, shown in their original formats. The 8 fest showcases the 70+ history of small gauge film - from contemporary artists' work in the form, to its wider cultural use in home movies, instructional loops and beyond.

Call for submissions: 2013 Planet In Focus Environmental Film Festival

The Planet In Focus Environmental Film Festival has put out a call for submissions for the 14th edition of the annual festival.

Planet in Focus is Canada’s leading environmental film organization showcasing and promoting outstanding environmental films and videos in all genres (documentaries, dramatic, experimental, short films, features and animation) by Canadian and international filmmakers. Film and video submissions include stories and explorations of urban and rural spaces; wildlife; social, cultural and political environments; farming; Aboriginal perspectives; health and environment; climate change; human displacement; war; globalization; water; farming; forests, food security and more.

International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) Awards – nominations

The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) announces its list of nominees for excellence in musical scoring in 2012. The largest numbers this year are, for the most part, split evenly between four composers, all of whom received four nominations: Mychael Danna, Alexandre Desplat, Fernando Velázquez and veteran composer John Williams.

The nominations for Danna, Velázquez and Williams were each for a single score – director Ang Lee’s vivid shipwreck drama Life of Pi, director Juan Antonio Bayona’s harrowing tsunami drama Lo Imposible (The Impossible) and director Steven Spielberg’s look at the last months of the life of Lincoln, respectively.

Desplat’s nominations were for his body of work in 2012 which included writing IFMCA Award-nominated music for the quirky comedy Moonrise Kingdom, the storybook animation Rise of the Guardians, and the contemporary war thriller Zero Dark Thirty, as well as for the 1970s espionage thriller Argo, the realistic French romantic drama De rouille et d'os (Rust and Bone), the Italian satirical comedy Reality, and the French-language biopic Cloclo.

3D Creative Arts Awards 2013 – winners

The International 3D Society bestowed 25 honors for “distinguished achievement” in the 3D Creative Arts Awards Wednesday night at a black-tie ceremony held at the Beverly Hills hotel in Los Angeles. Life of Pi (20th Century Fox) swept several categories including: Best Live Action 3D Feature, Best Stereography – Live Action, and 3D Sequence/Moment of the Year. Two of the Society’s Lumiere™ statuettes were presented to: Brave (Pixar Animation Studios) for Best Animated 3D feature, and Best Stereography – Animation. The Avengers (Paramount Pictures) was honored for Best Use of 2D to 3D Conversion in 2012. Katy Perry: Part of Me won in the category of Best Motion Picture Live Event.

Life of Pi director Ang Lee received the Society’s Harold Lloyd Filmmaker Award, which was presented by Lloyd’s granddaughter, Suzanne Lloyd, and Society Co-Chairman Tom Cosgrove, CEO of 3net.

Call for submissions: Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting

The Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition is now open for submissions.

Up to five $35,000 fellowships are awarded annually. Fellowship recipients are expected to complete at least one original feature film screenplay during the Fellowship year. Fellowship payments are subject to satisfactory progress of the recipient’s work, as judged by the Academy Nicholl Fellowships Committee. Fellowship recipients, selected from approximately ten finalists in the competition, are announced in October. The winners and finalists are invited to participate in awards week ceremonies and seminars in November.

2013 Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards – winners

The Visual Effects Society announced the winners of The 11th Annual VES Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. The event recognizes outstanding visual effects in twenty-four categories of film, animation, television, commercials and video games.

Jeffrey A. Okun, Chair of the Visual Effects Society, commented, “Over eleven years, our awards show has developed into a truly special event. Each year, we put a spotlight on artists' achievements in visual effects that today more than ever define the experience of going to the cinema. We thank everyone who came together tonight to honor the artistry of all of our winners and nominees.”

Filmmakers, celebrities, producers and guests joined more than a thousand attendees from the visual effects industry for the sold-out gala – which honored director Ang Lee with the VES Visionary Award, presented by Dennis Muren, and Richard Edlund with the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Harrison Ford.