Gallo, Ozon, Reichardt, Schnabel, Hellman, Kechiche, Coppola, etc, Screening at Venice

The complete line-up of the 67th Venice Film Festival was announced yesterday, with twenty-two films competing for the the Golden Lion, the festival's highest honor which was awarded to Samuel Maoz's Lebanon last year. Not paying attention to films in production has its benefits; quite a few of the filmmakers presenting their works this year came as a pleasant surprise. Among those surprises: Kelly Reichardt's Meek's Cutoff which re-teams the director with her Wendy & Lucy star Michelle Williams; a brand new film written, directed, starring, composed and edited (naturally) by Vincent Gallo called Promises Written in Water; Pablo Larraín's follow-up to Tony Manero, Post mortem; Abdellatif Kechiche's Vénus noire [Black Venus], his first film since La graine et le mulet [The Secret of the Grain] which won a Special Jury Prize at the 2007 fest; Tran Anh Hung's adaptation of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood; and Road to Nowhere, the first feature-length film from Monte Hellman in twenty-one years (following, uh, Silent Night, Deadly Night 3) which stars two former "It" girls Shannyn Sossamon and Dominique Swain. Gallo will also be presenting a short entitled The Agent as part of the Horizons sidebar, which–like Promises–stars Sylvester Stallone's son Sage. Other high profile filmmakers in competition: Sofia Coppola with Somewhere; Julian Schnabel with Miral; François Ozon with Potiche; Tom Tykwer with Drei [Three]; Tsui Hark with Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame; Takashi Miike with 13 Assassins; Darren Aronofsky with Black Swan; and Álex de la Iglesia with Balada triste de trompeta [A Sad Trumpet Ballad]. Four Italian films will be screening in competition, and unfortunately the national titles have proven to be the weakest entries in recent history. The sore thumb of the lot appears to be Barney's Version, whose fine cast feels overshadowed by the fact that the last film outing from the director, Richard J. Lewis, was a direct-to-video sequel to the buddy-cop-and-dog classic K-9 (starring, uh, Jim Belushi). Tran Anh Hung and Darren Aronofsky are the only past Golden Lion winners in competition, for Cyclo in 1995 and The Wrestler in 2008 respectively. The competition line-up can be found below. The festival runs from 1-11 September.

- 13 Assassins, d. Takashi Miike, Japan
- Attenberg, d. Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece, w. Yorgos Lanthimos
- Balada triste de trompeta [A Sad Trumpet Ballad], d. Álex de la Iglesia (Dance with the Devil), Spain/France, w. Carmen Maura, Fernando Guillén Cuervo, Antonio de la Torre
- Barney's Version, d. Richard J. Lewis, Canada/Italy, w. Dustin Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Rosamund Pike, Minnie Driver
- Black Swan, d. Darren Aronofsky, USA, w. Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder, Bruce Greenwood, Scott Speedman
- Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame, d. Tsui Hark (Once Upon a Time in China), China/Hong Kong, w. Andy Lau, Carina Lau, Li Bingbing, Tony Leung Ka-Fai
- Drei [Three], d. Tom Tykwer, Germany, w. Devid Striesow
- Happy Few, d. Antony Cordier (Douches froides), France, w. Marina Foïs, Élodie Bouchez, Roschdy Zem, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Jean-François Stévenin
- Meek's Cutoff, d. Kelly Reichardt, USA, w. Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton, Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano, Shirley Henderson
- Miral, d. Julian Schnabel, France/Israel/UK/Italy/USA, w. Hiam Abbass, Freida Pinto, Willem Dafoe, Vanessa Redgrave, Alexander Siddig, Stella Schnabel
- Noi credevamo, d. Mario Martone (L'odore del sengue), Italy/France, w. Luigi Lo Cascio, Toni Servillo
- Norwegian Wood, d. Tran Anh Hung, Japan, w. Rinko Kikuchi
- La passione, d. Carlo Mazzacurati (La lingua del santo), Italy, w. Stefania Sandrelli
- La pecora nera, d. Ascanio Celestini, Italy, w. Maya Sansa
- Post mortem, d. Pablo Larraín, Chile/Mexico/Germany
- Potiche, d. François Ozon, France/Belgium, w. Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Fabrice Luchini, Karin Viard, Judith Godrèche, Jérémie Renier
- Promises Written in Water, d. Vincent Gallo, USA, w. Gallo
- Road to Nowhere, d. Monte Hellman (Two-Lane Blacktop), USA, w. Shannyn Sossamon, Dominique Swain, John Diehl, Fabio Testi
- Silent Souls, d. Aleksei Fedorchenko (First on the Moon), Russia
- La solitudine dei numeri primi [The Solitude of Prime Numbers], d. Saverio Costanzo (In Memory of Me), Italy/France/Germany, w. Filippo Timi, Isabella Rossellini
- Somewhere, d. Sofia Coppola, USA, w. Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, Benicio del Toro, Michelle Monaghan, Benicio Del Toro
- Vénus noire [Black Venus], d. Abdellatif Kechiche, France/Italy/Belgium, w. Olivier Gourmet

Out of competition, you'll find directorial efforts from both the Affleck brothers. The elder will follow his well-received (but, still, not that good) Gone Baby Gone with The Town, a crime thriller about a Boston-area gang of thieves. Casey's directorial debut is I'm Still Here, a documentary that received a lot of press last year which follows Joaquin Phoenix's retirement from acting to pursue a career as a rapper. In addition to 13 Assassins, Takashi Miike's Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City will premiere, likely as part of the festival's midnight screenings, which will open with Robert Rodriguez's star-and-"star"-studded Machete. Julie Taymor's return to Shakespeare, The Tempest, will close this portion. Below you'll find a selection of the films playing out of competition.

- 1960, d. Gabriele Salvatores (I'm Not Scared), Italy
- The Child's Eye 3D, d. Oxide Pang, Danny Pang, Hong Kong/China
- I'm Still Here, d. Casey Affleck, USA, w. Joaquin Phoenix
- The Last Movie, d. Dennis Hopper, USA, w. Hopper, Tomas Milian, Samuel Fuller, Sylvia Miles, Peter Fonda, Kris Kristofferson, Henry Jaglom, John Phillip Law, Michelle Phillips, Dean Stockwell, Russ Tamblyn, Toni Basil
- Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, d. Andrew Lau, Hong Kong/China, w. Donnie Yen, Shu Qi
- A Letter to Elia, d. Martin Scorsese, Kent Jones, USA
- Lope, d. Andrucha Waddington (House of Sand), Spain/Brazil, w. Leonor Watling, Pilar López de Ayala, Sonia Braga, Luis Tosar
- Machete, d. Robert Rodriguez, USA, w. Danny Trejo, Michelle Rodriguez, Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, Cheech Marin, Jeff Fahey, Steven Seagal, Don Johnson, Rose McGowan, Tom Savini
- Passione, d. John Turturro, Italy
- Přežít svůj život [Surviving Life], d. Jan Švankmajer, Czech Republic/Slovakia
- Raavanan, d. Mani Ratnam, India, w. Aishwarya Rai
- Reign of Assassins, d. John Woo, Su Chao-Bin, China/Hong Kong/Taiwan, w. Michelle Yeoh, Kelly Lin
- Shock Labyrinth 3D, d. Takashi Shimizu (Ju-on), Japan
- Showtime, d. Stanley Kwan (Lan yu), China, w. Carina Lau, Tony Leung Ka-Fai
- Sorelle mai, d. Marco Bellocchio, Italy
- The Tempest, d. Julie Taymor, USA, w. Helen Mirren, Russell Brand, Alfred Molina, Djimon Hounsou, David Strathairn, Chris Cooper, Alfred Molina, Alan Cumming, Ben Whishaw
- That Girl in Yellow Boots, d. Anurag Kashyap (Dev.D), India
- The Town, d. Ben Affleck, USA, w. Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively
- Vallanzasca - Gli angeli del male, d. Michele Placido (Romanzo criminale), Italy/France, w. Kim Rossi Stuart, Filippo Timi, Moritz Bleibtreu, Paz Vega
- Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City, d. Takashi Miike, Japan

The Horizons portion of this year's selection will open with La belle endormie [Sleeping Beauty], another fairy tale adaptation from Catherine Breillat following last year's Barbe Bleue; like its predecessor, La belle endormie was produced by Arte Télévision and employs a cast of unknowns. Hong Sang-soo's Oki's Movie will close the section; Oki's Movie is Hong Sang-soo's second film to premiere in 2010 following Ha Ha Ha, which was awarded the Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes in May. Not a whole lot of information was available about the rest of the films (some of them shorts), but I listed below the films from directors I knew. And following that is a selection of the films screening as part of the Venice Days, one of the festival's autonomous sidebars.

Horizons

- The Agent, d. Vincent Gallo, USA, w. Sage Stallone, Gallo
- La belle endormie [Sleeping Beauty], d. Catherine Breillat, France
- Better Life, d. Isaac Julien, UK/China, w. Maggie Cheung
- Cold Fish, d. Sion Sono, Japan
- Guest, d. José Luis Guerin, Spain
- The Leopard, d. Isaac Julien, UK/Italy
- A Loft, d. Ken Jacobs, USA
- News from Nowhere, d. Paul Morrissey, USA
- Oki's Movie, d. Hong Sang-soo, South Korea
- Painéis de São Vicente de Fora, Visão Poética, d. Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal, w. Ricardo Trêpa
- Red Earth, d. Clara Law, Hong Kong/China

Venice Days

- L'amour buio, d. Antonio Capuano (Luna rossa), Italy, w. Valeria Golino
- Le bruit des glaçons [The Clink of Ice], d. Bertrand Blier (Beau-père), France, w. Jean Duhardin, Albert Dupontel
- Cirkus Columbia, d. Danis Tanović (No Man's Land), Bosnia & Herzegovina/France/UK/Slovenia/Germany/Belgium/Serbia, w. Miki Manojlović, Mira Furlan
- Hitler à Hollywood [Hitler in Hollywood], d. Frédéric Sojcher, w. Maria de Medeiros, Micheline Presle
- Incendies, d. Denis Villeneuve (Polytechnique), Canada/France, w. Lubna Azabal
- Noir océan, d. Marion Hänsel (The Quarry), w. Adrien Joliver
- La vida de los peces, d. Matías Bize (En la cama), Chile, w. Santiago Cabrera, Blanca Lewin

The Decade List: Le scaphandre et le papillon (2007)

Le scaphandre et le papillon [The Diving Bell and the Butterfly] – dir. Julian Schnabel

My disdain for the "docudrama" or the "biopic" is a frequent topic of discussion on this blog, so a retread isn't necessary. Director Julian Schnabel has made his film career out of the genre. His first film looked at the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat (Basquiat), and the second was an adaptation of Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas' autobiography (Before Night Falls). As The Diving Bell and the Butterfly marks only his third film, it's difficult to say whether Schabel's adaptation of Jean-Dominique Bauby's memoir of the same name completes an unnamed trilogy of artists whose lives were cut too short. Nonetheless, the film continues Schnabel's fascination, approaching Bauby, the former editor of French Elle magazine, with an impeccable perspective that almost completely overshadows the work he did on Basquiat and Arenas.

At the peak of his career, Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) suffers a stroke that renders him almost entirely paralyzed and unable to speak. At the age of 43, Bauby was the editor of the prestigious Elle, a father of three and lover of many women, including his wife Céline (Emmanuelle Seigner) and sometime mistress Joséphine (Marina Hands). The stroke drags Bauby, referred to by his friends as Jean-Do, into what's called "locked-in syndrome," with the only possibility of communicable interaction being in the form of his left eye. In a sort of updating of The Miracle Worker, language specialist Henriette (Marie-Josée Croze) develops a system of communication through blinking and a utilitarian alphabet, thus prompting Jean-Do to write his memoir through a long series of winks.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is, as you probably know, a lot more vibrant that it sounds. With the aid of cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, who's acted as director of photography on almost every film Steven Spielberg has ever made, Schnabel turns The Diving Bell and the Butterfly into an experiment in perception. A large portion of the film is shot from the viewpoint of Jean-Do's functioning eye; the film inevitably draws up its curtains at the very moment Jean-Do wakes up from his coma. The images are blurry, frustrating and entrancing and eventually form a rhythm of storytelling unlike anything you've likely seen before. It only becomes more apparent how well Schnabel and Kaminski's experiment worked when they do the unthinkable and take the camera outside of Jean-Do's head. I'm still a bit unsure why Schnabel found it necessary to switch the film into third-person, if for no other reason that to remind you how remarkable the film was when it was still communicating in the first.

Ultimately, when you peel off everything and get to its core, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly serves as an especially good example of "well, if you're gonna make a film about [insert your exhausted subgenre of film, in this case an uplifting film about real person who becomes an invalid], you'd be lucky to make it as good as this." The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is less about Jean-Dominique Bauby, a man few Americans probably were aware of before the film came out, than it is about voice and language in film and storytelling. It's at turns dazzling and beautifully chaotic and, at the end of the day, Schnabel's finest foray into infusing his artistic roots into the landscape of film (because, let's face it, the only thing exceptional about Before Night Falls is its lead actor, Javier Bardem, and maybe Johnny Depp as a transsexual... and can you even remember if Basquiat was any good?).

With: Mathieu Amalric, Marie-Josée Croze, Emmanuelle Seigner, Anne Consigny, Patrick Chesnais, Marina Hands, Max von Sydow, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Niels Arestrup, Olatz López Garmendia, Isaach De Bankolé, Emma de Caunes, Jean-Philippe Écoffey, Gérard Watkins, Théo Sampaio
Screenplay: Ronald Harwood, based on the book by Jean-Dominique Bauby
Cinematography: Janusz Kaminski
Music: Paul Cantelon
Country of Origin: France/USA
US Distributor: Miramax

Premiere: 22 May 2007 (Cannes Film Festival)
US Premiere: 31 August 2007 (Telluride Film Festival)

Awards: Best Director, Technical Grand Prize – Janusz Kaminski (Cannes Film Festival); Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film (Golden Globes); Best Adapted Screenplay (BAFTAs); Best Actor – Mathieu Amalric, Best Editing – Juliette Welfling (César Awards, France); Best Director, Best Cinematography (Independent Spirit Awards); Audience Award, European Film (San Sebastián Film Festival); Best Cinematography (Stockholm Film Festival)

...People Fucking

Here are a few DVD announcements. Picture This! Entertainment will release the film 7 Virgins [7 vírgenes], starring Juan José Ballesta (El Bola) on 30 September. They will also release The Good Boy, or in Spanish Segundo asalto, starring Darío Grandinetti (Talk to Her), on the 16th.

Strand will release two films in September: Jacques Nolot's (Porn Theatre) Before I Forget [Avant que j'oublie] and Ferzan Ozpetek's (Steam: The Turkish Bath, Facing Windows) Saturn in Opposition [Saturno contro], starring Stefano Accorsi and Margherita Buy.

ThinkFilm is releasing Stuart Gordon's bloody comedy (?) Stuck, starring Mena Suvari and Stephen Rea, on 7 October. They will also have out the Canadian film YPF, or Young People Fucking as it was known at festivals, on the 14th. You may know Young People Fucking as being amid the Canadian government censorship case. Google it.

Facets is releasing the Bill Douglas trilogy, which consists of My Childhood, My Ain Folk and My Way Home, from 72-78, on 23 September. The set will also be released on 23 June from BFI in the UK. The Weinstein Company has Lou Reed's Berlin, a concert film directed by Julian Schnabel, on 16 September. It has to be better than any other concert film I've seen of Reed in the past.

Kino will be releasing a newly remastered version of the infamous RKO picture The Man on the Eiffel Tower, co-directed by Burgess Meredith, Irving Allen and Charles Laughton (though the latter two remained uncredited), on 16 September. The film was only previously available in a shitty transfer for cheap. BCI Eclipse will release another out-of-circulation film, Simon Heresa's A Day at the Beach, written by Roman Polanski on 9 September. The film stars Peter Sellers.

Water Bearer Films is releasing Philippe Vallois' (We Were One Man) notorious Johan, carnet intime homosexuel, or Johan, mon été 75, on 26 August. And finally, Venevision will release Antonio Chavarrías' Volverás, starring Tristan Ulloa and Unax Uglade, on 16 September.

Best Director

As I only have 3 movies left to watch (Charlie Wilson's War, Elizabeth: The Golden Age and American Gangster), I'm going to begin my rundown of the people who should win the gold this Sunday. I'm not nearly as good at summing up who will win, but here's my thoughts. The nominees are as follows: Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood), Ethan Coen, Joel Coen (No Country for Old Men), Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton), Jason Reitman (Juno), and Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly).

Best Director

Who Should Win: Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

This is a tough category as I was pretty astounded by both P.T. Anderson and the Coen brothers' achievements, but Schnabel achieved something really groundbreaking for me: an artpiece, a biopic and a film without false or manipulative sentiments. His vision is breathtaking, and my only complaint came when he decided to take the film out of first person. Yet still, the film is masterful, particularly from a director whose only worked in the realm of biopics. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is his finest achievement in the film world and one I don't think will be easily forgotten (though I could say the same about Anderson and the Coens)...

The WTF? Nominee: Jason Reitman (Juno)

Jason Reitman... for Juno? Really? Do you think Diablo Cody was pissed that someone tried to attribute a separate authorship to the film? I bet she was. Juno's strengths (and its weaknesses) all lie on Cody's shoulders; Reitman was just there to make sure the camera was placed in the right direction. He, thankfully, avoids the obnoxious quirky look and feel of a Zack Braff film (which Juno could have very, very easily fallen into), so maybe he should be thanked for that... or maybe just not at all.

BAFTAs!

So, I'll let the fact that Atonement won the BAFTA for Best Picture slide, because they awarded my dear Tilda Swinton as the best supporting actress for Michael Clayton, for which she's hardly the front-runner for in the upcoming Academy Awards. Other awards included Marion Cotillard for La vie en rose in the Best Actress, Daniel Day Lewis for Best Actor, Javier Bardem for Best Supporting Actor, the Coens for Best Director, Juno for Original Screenplay, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly for adapted, Ratatouille for Animated Film, The Lives of Others for Foreign, No Country for Old Men for cinematography, and This Is England for Best British Film (though wasn't Atonement British?).

What Kind of Fuckery Is This??

The shoulda-been Catwoman (at least in her eyes), Sean Young, officially became my personal hero at the Directors Guild of America awards by "heckling" Julian Schnabel, among others. I don't much care for the goings-on of celebrities' personal lives, but I'm saddened to hear that Ms. Young has checked into rehab. Not because, you know, I was concerned about her health, but because she single-handledly made the awards show worth watching. I was really hoping she'd liven up this year's Oscars, whether they go on or not. Michael K of Dlisted offered a fine suggestion, get Bai Ling on the line pronto! We need somebody to fuck-start those Oscars.

List #5: The First Annual Fin de cinema Film Awards

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Yes, there will be blood

Four more critics' circles announced their year-end awards today. Amy Ryan seems to be taking the place of once frontrunner for the best supporting actress category Cate Blanchett (though I may suspect that confusion would be made as to whether she was the lead or supporting). Frank Langella has also emerged as a dark horse candidate for Best Actor... and if you're wondering about Colossal Youth from Portugal which took two best "experimental" films, the film, as of yet, has no US distributor (I'll keep you posted with that one). And this year's Cannes line-up appears to be connecting with the US film awards much more than previous years with In Competition films like No Country for Old Men, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Colossal Youth, Persepolis, and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days all faring quite well in the year-end rush of prizes. Keep in mind though that The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is ineligible for the Foreign-Language Oscar as France chose Persepolis as their official selection. I'm pretty sure a good portion of the film is in English as well, so France avoided the conflict that Israel is facing now with their selection of The Band's Visit. I really don't have anything to say other than that... but here they are anyway. UPDATED: 12/11 with San Francisco Film Critics Circle.

Boston Film Critics Assosication

Film: No Country for Old Men

Director: Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

Actor: Frank Langella (Starting Out in the Evening)

Actress: Marion Cotillard (La Vie en rose)

Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)

Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone)

Screenplay: Brad Bird (Ratatouille)

Foreign-Language Film: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Documentary/Non-Fiction Film: Crazy Love - dir. Dan Klores

Cinematography: Janusz Kaminski (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

New Filmmaker: Ben Affleck (Gone Baby Gone)

Ensemble Cast: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Albert Finney, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, Amy Ryan, et al)

Independent/Experimental: Colossal Youth [Juventude Em Marcha] - dir. Pedro Costa

Los Angeles Film Critics Association

Film: There Will Be Blood
Runner-Up: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood)
Runner-Up: Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood)
Runner-Up: Frank Langella (Starting Out in the Evening)

Actress: Marion Cotillard (La vie en rose)
Runner-Up: Anamaria Marinca (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days)

Supporting Actor: Vlad Ivanov (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days)
Runner-Up: Hal Holbrook (Into the Wild)

Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone)
Runner-Up: Cate Blanchett (I'm Not There)

Screenplay: Tamara Jenkins (The Savages)
Runner-Up: Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood)

Foreign-Language Film: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days [4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile] - dir. Cristian Mungiu
Runner-Up: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - dir. Julian Schnabel

Documentary/Non-Fiction Film: No End in Sight - dir. Charles Ferguson
Runner-Up: Sicko - dir. Michael Moore

Production Design: Jack Fisk (There Will Be Blood)
Runner-Up: Dante Ferretti (Sweeney Todd)

Animation (tie): Ratatouille - dir. Brad Bird; Persepolis - dir. Vincent Parannaud, Marjane Satrapi

Music: Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova (Once)
Runner-Up: Jonny Greenwood (There Will Be Blood)

Cinematography: Janusz Kaminski (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)
Runner-Up: Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood)

New Generation: Sarah Polley (Away from Her)

Career Achievement: Sidney Lumet

Independent/Experimental: Colossal Youth [Juventude Em Marcha] - dir. Pedro Costa

Washington DC Film Critics

Film: No Country for Old Men

Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men)

Actor: George Clooney (Michael Clayton)

Actress: Julie Christie (Away from Her)

Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)

Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead)

Ensemble Cast: No Country for Old Men (Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Kelly Macdonald, Woody Harrelson, et al)

Breakthrough Performance: Ellen Page (Juno)

Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin (Charlie Wilson's War)

Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody (Juno)

Animated Feature: Ratatouille - dir. Brad Bird

Foreign Language Film: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - dir. Julian Schnabel

Documentary: Sicko - dir. Michael Moore

Art Direction: Sweeney Todd

New York Online Film Critics

Film (tie): The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - dir. Julian Schnabel; There Will Be Blood - dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood)

Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood)

Actress: Julie Christie (Away from Her)

Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)

Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett (I'm Not There)

Cinematography: Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood)

Screenplay: Wes Anderson, Jason Schwartzman, Roman Coppola (The Darjeeling Limited)

Foreign Film (tie): The Lives of Others - dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmark; Persepolis - dir. Vincent Parannaud, Marjane Satrapi

Documentary: Sicko - dir. Michael Moore

Music/Score: Jonny Greenwood (There Will Be Blood)

Breakthrough Performance: Ellen Page (Juno)

Debut as Director: Sarah Polley (Away from Her)

Ensemble Performance: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Albert Finney, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, Amy Ryan, et al)

The 11 Best Films of 07 (alphabetically):
Atonement - dir. Joe Wright
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead - dir. Sidney Lumet
The Darjeeling Limited - dir. Wes Anderson
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - dir. Julian Schnabel
I'm Not There - dir. Todd Haynes
Juno - dir. Jason Reitman
Michael Clayton - dir. Tony Gilroy
No Country for Old Men - dir. Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Persepolis - dir. Vincent Parannaud, Marjane Satrapi
Sweeney Todd - dir. Tim Burton
There Will Be Blood - dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

San Francisco Film Critics Circle

Film: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men)

Actor: George Clooney (Michael Clayton)

Actress: Julie Christie (Away from Her)

Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)

Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone)

Original Screenplay: Tamara Jenkins (The Savages)

Adapted Screenplay: Sarah Polley (Away from Her)

Documentary: No End in Sight - dir. Charles Ferguson

Foreign Film: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - dir. Julian Schnabel