'Carol' named best picture by New York Film Critics Circle

(The Hollywood Reporter)The New York Film Critics Circle has named "Carol" as its best picture of 2015. The Todd Haynes-directed film — which stars Cate Blanchett as a housewife who meets and begins an affair with a shop clerk and aspiring photographer (Rooney Mara) in 1950s New York — won four awards from the critics organization.

In addition to best picture, "Carol" received honors for best director, best screenplay and best cinematography. However, neither Blanchett nor Mara received an acting award for the film. Instead, the organization, which voted on its annual film picks on Monday, selected Michael Keaton as best actor for his work in Spotlight and Saoirse Ronan as best actress for her role in Brooklyn. The best supporting actress nod went to Kristen Stewart for her part in "Clouds of Sils Maria."

"Inside Out" was named best animated film, the latest honor for the Pixar movie after it was namedbest animated film by the National Board of Review and received 14 Annie Award nominations on Tuesday.

The NBR's pick for best film, Mad Max: Fury Road, was ignored by the NYFCC, as were Oscar hopefuls "The Hateful Eight," "The Martian," "Beasts of No Nation" and "Room," which each won awards from the NBR. Other prospective Oscar contenders ignored by the NYFCC include "Steve Jobs," "Joy," "Concussion," "The Revenant," "Anomalisa," "Truth," "The Danish Girl," "Straight Outta Compton," "The Big Short," " Amy," "Sicario" and "Tangerine." "Spotlight," meanwhile, only received one award from NYFCC: Keaton's best actor nod.

Read more: 'Spotlight' tops Gotham Awards; full winners list

Last year, Boyhood was the big winner among the NYFCC, with the Richard Linklater-directed movie taking home three awards.

The full list of the NYFCC's 2015 winners follows:

Best Picture: Carol

Best Actor: Michael Keaton, Spotlight

Best Actress: Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

Best Director: Todd Haynes, Carol

Best Screenplay: Carol

Best Supporting Actor: Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies

Best Supporting Actress: Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria

Best Animated Film: Inside Out

Best Cinematography: Edward Lachman, Carol

Best First Film: Son of Saul

Best Foreign Film: Timbuktu

Best Nonfiction Film: In Jackson Heights

Special Award: Posthumous award honoring the legacy of William Becker and Janus Films

Special Award: Ennio Morricone, composer

Founded in 1935, the organization's membership includes critics from daily and weekly newspapers, magazines and qualifying online general-interest publications. Every year in December, the group meets in New York to vote on awards for the previous calendar year's films.

In addition to the regular categories, which include best picture, director, actor and actress, special stand-alone awards are given to individuals and organizations that have made substantial contributions to the art of cinema, including producers, directors, actors, writers, critics, historians, film restorers and service organizations.

The awards are set to be handed out in New York on Jan. 4.

CNN

Expendables 2 raids US box office

Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham and Terry Crews star in The Expendables 2

Action heroes led by Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger have stormed to the top of the North American box office chart with The Expendables 2.

The full-throttle film sequel also stars Bruce Willis, Jason Statham, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Jet Li in the tale of a gang of military mercenaries.
The film took $28.8m (£18.3m) over the weekend, according to studio estimates.
It knocked The Bourne Legacy into second place with $17m (£11m), while animated comedy ParaNorman is in third.
That film features a boy named Norman who can talk to ghosts and works to save his town from a zombie apocalypse.
Will Ferrell's political spoof The Campaign is in fourth place, followed by a new entry for Motown story Sparkle, a remake of the 1976 musical.
Sparkle was the final movie role for Whitney Houston, who starred alongside American Idol winner Jordin Sparks before her death in February.
Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gliberman wrote that the "gravelly conviction" of Houston's performance proved that "this could have been the first step not merely in a comeback but in a major re-invention".
USA Today's Claudia Puig wrote: "Envisioned as a starring vehicle for Sparks, Sparkle is also a fitting curtain call for Houston."
In sixth place in the box office chart, The Dark Knight Rises made $11.1m (£7m), taking it past $400m (£255m) and above The Hunger Games as the second most successful film of the year so far.
The Avengers is still comfortably the year's biggest hit, having taken $618m (£393m) in the US and Canada.



BBC

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2

Release Date: November 16, 2012

Studio: Summit Entertainment

Director: Bill Condon

Screenwriter: Melissa Rosenberg

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Peter Facinelli, Ashley Greene, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone, Elizabeth Reaser, Nikki Reed, Billy Burke, Rami Malek, Maggie Grace, Mackenzie Foy, Tracey Heggins, Judi Shekoni, Omar Metwally, Andrea Gabriel, Rami Malek, Angela Sarafyan, Marlane Barnes, Lisa Howard, Patrick Brennan, Noel Fisher, Guri Weinberg, Lee Pace, Toni Trucks, Bill Tangradi, Erik Odom, Valorie Curry, Joe Anderson, Olga Fonda, Janelle Froehlich, Masami Kosaka, Sebastiao Lemos, Amadou Ly, Ty Olsson, Wendell Pierce, Carolina Virguez




Genre: Drama, Romance, Thriller

MPAA Rating: Not Available

Official Website: BreakingDawn-themovie.com  Review: Not Available

DVD Review: Not Available

DVD: Not Available

Movie Poster: Not Available

Production Stills: View here

Plot Summary: "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn" will be released as two separate films. The project, based on the fourth novel in author Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" series, illuminates the secrets and mysteries of this spellbinding romantic epic that has entranced millions.

US moviegoers hungry for more

Appetite for more: (L-R) Liam Hemsworth, Isabelle Fuhrman, Josh Hutcherson, Director Gary Ross and Jennifer Lawrence of The Hunger Games, which remains at No. 1 at the US box office. Picture: Getty.

"THE Hunger Games" is still the first item on the menu for movie fans.
The blockbuster took in US$61.1 million ($59 million) to remain the No. 1 film in its second weekend at the US box office.
Studio estimates put Lionsgate's "The Hunger Games" well ahead of Sam Worthington's action sequel "Wrath of the Titans," which opened in second-place with US$34.2 million.
That's far below the US$61.2 million opening of its predecessor, "Clash of the Titans," two years ago. But distributor Warner Bros. opened "Clash" on Easter weekend, when young fans already were off school and in holiday mode. With Easter coming next weekend, the studio expects "Wrath" to catch up to "Clash" in the next few weeks.

Julia Roberts' comic "Snow White" reinvention "Mirror Mirror" debuted at No. 3 with US$19 million. Released by Relativity Media, the film casts Roberts as the wicked queen opposite Lily Collins as Snow White.
Starring Jennifer Lawrence as a teen forced to compete in a televised death match, "The Hunger Games" lifted its domestic total to US$251 million after just 10 days.
"We're obviously ecstatic at that quarter of a billion - I like the sound of that, by the way," said David Spitz, head of distribution for Lionsgate. "We're going into a period now with Easter weekend and spring break where literally 30 per cent of kids are out of school starting tomorrow ... We have a great opportunity to continue to play and play and play.
"The Hunger Games" shot past "Dr. Seuss' the Lorax" (US$189.6 million domestically) to become the top-grossing film this year.
"Wrath of the Titans" had a smaller domestic opening than 2010's "Clash," but the sequel was the top draw overseas with a debut of US$78 million in 60 markets. That gave it a worldwide total of US$112.2 million.
Dan Fellman, head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros., said he expects "Wrath" to follow a pattern similar to the studio's "Sherlock Holmes" sequel last December.
"Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" opened earlier in the month and to much smaller crowds than the first movie, which premiered over the busy Christmas weekend. Yet "Game of Shadows" held on longer in subsequent weekends, its worldwide haul slightly exceeding the original movie.
Likewise, "Wrath of the Titans" should hold up better than "Clash" over Easter and the following weeks, Mr Fellman said.
"We're going to get there. It's just going to be in a different pattern," he said.
The sequel stars Worthington as ancient Greek hero Perseus in a battle of gods and men, including Liam Neeson as Zeus and Ralph Fiennes as Hades.
"The Hunger Games" added US$34.8 million overseas to raise its international total to US$113.9 million and its worldwide haul to about US$365 million.
While lagging behind the overseas business of such teen-based literary adaptations as the "Harry Potter" and "Twilight" movies, "The Hunger Games" is on a pace to surpass the domestic revenues of nearly all of those films.
"The Hunger Games" is headed well above US$300 million domestically, a level reached by just three of the eight "Harry Potter" films and only once by any of the "Twilight" flicks.
In limited release, the Weinstein Co. documentary "Bully" opened strongly with US$115,000 in five theaters, a healthy result for a non-fiction film.
An examination of school bullying, the film benefited from publicity over a campaign asking the Motion Picture Association of America to lower it from an R rating so that youths under 17 could see it without an adult.
Unable to secure a lower rating, Weinstein decided to release "Bully" unrated. The film earned the R rating for language, and filmmaker Lee Hirsch said he declined to edit out the offending words because it would have diminished the documentary's impact.
Hollywood's bull market continued, with audiences continuing their run on theaters. Overall domestic revenues totaled US$154 million, up 23.5 per cent from the same weekend last year, when "Hop" led with US$37.5 million.
For the year, domestic receipts are at US$2.6 billion, 20 per cent ahead of 2011's, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
By far the biggest movie to open outside the busy summer and late-year holiday periods and the biggest non-sequel debut ever, "The Hunger Games" alone has given the industry a huge prelude to the blockbuster season that hits its stride in early May.
"If this were a summer movie, these would still be impressive numbers," said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian. "Usually, you'll see sequels in a big franchise like this getting bigger and bigger, but this movie right out of the gate has already become one of the biggest blockbusters of all time."
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theatres, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included.
1. "The Hunger Games," US$61.1 million.
2. "Wrath of the Titans," US$34.2 million.
3. "Mirror Mirror," US$19 million.
4. "21 Jump Street," US$15 million.
5. "Dr. Seuss' the Lorax," US$8 million.
6. "John Carter," US$2 million.
7. "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen," US$1.3 million.
8. "Act of Valor," US$1 million.
9. "A Thousand Words," US$915,000.
10. "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island," US$835,000.

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