London Critics’ Circle Awards Winners 2013

Last night the London Critics’ Circle Awards 2013 took place at the May Fair Hotel in snow covered central London. Stars including Helena Bonham Carer, Emily Blunt, Samantha Barks, Toby Jones and Olivia Coleman walked the red carpet to present and collect awards.

Check out the full list of this year’s Critics’ Circle Award Winners below with horror film Berberian Sound Studio, Life of Pi, The Master and Michael Hanake’s Amour leading the way in a very competitive year.

Film of the year: Amour

Foreign-language film of the year: Rust and Bone

Documentary of the year: The Imposter

British film of the year: Berberian Sound Studio

Actor of the year: Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

Actress of the year: Emmanuelle Riva, Amour

Supporting actor of the year: Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

Supporting actress of the year: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

British actor of the year: Toby Jones, Berberian Sound Studio

British actress of the year: Andrea Riseborough, Shadow Dancer

Young British performer of the year: Tom Holland, The Impossible

Director of the year: Ang Lee, Life of Pi

Screenwriter of the year: Michael Haneke, Amour

Breakthrough British film-maker: Alice Lowe and Steve Oram, writers, Sightseers

Technical achievement of the year: Life of Pi,Bill Westenhofer (visual effects)

Dilys Powell award for excellence in film: Helena Bonham Carter

Check out our red carpet video interviews below with this years winners:

Empire Awards 2013 Voting Under Way

Film fans across the globe have the opportunity to make their voices heard at the Jameson Empire Awards 2013 . The awards ceremony takes place on Sunday March 24 in London and is expected to attract a host of star names from the film industry.

The Jameson Empire Awards are not voted for by the film industry or critics — they are one of the
biggest awards ceremonies to offer film fans the opportunity to have their voices heard. Hot on the heels
of the Oscars and BAFTAs, the Awards allow film fans and casual cinemagoers alike to vote for their
favourite films and performances of the past year. Voters can choose  in a variety of categories including: Best Male and Female Newcomer, Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy, The Art Of 3D, Best Comedy , Best British Film, Best Actress and the Jameson Best Actor.

2012 was a record breaking year at the UK box office maintaining cinema-going as the nation’s
leading and most passionate pastime. Bond’s return in Skyfall alone made an unprecedented  £100m, Marvel Avengers Assemble became the third biggest movie of all time and The Dark Knight
Rises also helped to drive over one billion people into the cinema.

Each year, the Jameson Empire Awards attract some of the biggest names in Hollywood, with last year’s guests including: Gary Oldman, Danny DeVito, Bérénice Marlohe, James McAvoy, Tom Hiddleston and Michael Fassbender. Previous years’ guests have included: Tim Burton, Russell Crowe, Daniel Radcliffe, Keira Knightley, Christian Bale, Matt Damon, Sigourney Weaver, Emma Watson, Tony Curtis, Quentin Tarantino, Kate Winslet and Dustin Hoffman.

Because the Awards are voted for by the public, they honour an eclectic mix of films, from big-budget blockbusters to independent cinema. Previous winners have included: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows —Part 2, Thor, Kill List, The Inbetweeners Movie, Avatar, Inception, Four Lions and In The Loop.

To see the full list of categories and cast your vote, visit:Empire Awards 2013 Voting . Open
voting continues throughout the ‘awards season’ until Wednesday February 27. The shortlist will be
announced on Friday March 1, with the final nominees shortlist open to a second round of public voting.

Picture Gallery below from last year’s Awards:

Flight London Premiere Pictures

Oscar Nominated star Denzel Washington joined co-star Kelly Reilly and acclaimed director Robert Zemeckis on the red carpet in London’s Leicester Square tonight for the UK premiere of new drama FLIGHT 

Check out a gallery of pictures below from the exciting event:

Django Unchained Review

The Plot:

After a bounty hunter recruits a slave called Django to help track down his latest payday the two become unlikely friends and partners. Together the pair set out to free Django’s wife Broomhilda from the clutches of a ruthless and sadistic Mississippi plantation owner.

The Good:

Quentin Tarantino reached new heights of blood soaked brilliance with Inglorious Basterds, his invigorating take on World War 2 and the pleasures of Nazi killing. With Django Unchained the infamous director once again takes a delightful revisionist approach to history, this time to the well-known evils of slavery.  The result is an original deeply satisfying reinvigoration of the Western genre packed with bullets, style and substance.

Amongst all the bloody vengeance and tension, Tarantino even manages to inject some welcome humour. It’s a trait clearly borrowed from the winning formula of the classic ‘Spaghetti Westerns’; taking the sting out of so much human death and misery with clever black comedy and occasional absurdity.  An excellent example of this in Django Unchained is a scene in which a bickering group of Ku Klux Klan members ineptly attempt to plan a midnight raid. Tarantino’s script is exquisitely crafted and precisely balanced.

Christoph Waltz won a well-deserved Oscar for his dangerously charismatic performance as a Nazi ‘Jew hunter’ in Inglorious Basterds, this time in his role as a good natured bounty hunter sparkles with the exactly the same magnificence. Flashing between wry humour and fierce tension Waltz is consistently brilliant and a strong contender for another academy award.

Jamie Foxx is a likewise a perfect fit for Django, playing him like a cunning combination of Shaft and Clint Eastwood. Without him the film would surely have struggled to maintain its flawless bravado and would have been a far less credible adventure.

Leonardo DiCaprio has great fun playing against type as the decadently depraved and sadistic plantation boss Calvin Candie. He clearly relishes the opportunity to play with a malevolent southern drawl and human skulls. Samuel L. Jackson is another stellar addition to Django’s impressive acting arsenal, playing Candie’s viciously shrewd right hand man.

Django’s soundtrack is another equally powerful presence in the film. Music has always been Tarantino’s secret weapon, consistently elevating scenes to iconic moments of unquestionable cool. Typically Tarantino has captured this magic by cannibalising classic film scores and resurrecting long forgotten favourite songs. This time he adds original recordings to the mix and produces a devastatingly effective fusion of iconic western sounds and hip hop. It’s a unique musical mash up that epitomises the film’s swaggering charms.

The Bad:

Before Django Unchained even had a trailer it had vocal critics. Fellow filmmakers like Spike Lee voiced angry concerns that turning the horrors of slavery into the backdrop of a flamboyant western would unavoidably be disrespectful and perhaps even outright offensive. Presumably it was suspected that Tarantino’s trademark focus on one liners and style might prevent him doing justice to such serious historical subject matter.

Though Tarantino’s script is predictably loaded with frequent use of the inflammatory N-word, it never fails to powerfully remind audiences just how horrific human slavery is. It’s the right and responsibility of filmmakers to attack evil by ridiculing its absurdities, exposing its wrongs and symbolically righting them through powerful heroic figures. That’s exactly what Django Unchained does.

Squeamish fans may be a little hesitant about rushing to see Django because of Tarantino’s reputation for blood soaked violence. The Kill Bill films in particular were a messy orgy of death, dismemberment and gruesome eye gouging. Although there may be plenty of gushing blood in Django when the bullets start flying, in reality the quick bursts of action are too frantic for any lingering gruesomeness. The film’s violence is mostly too fast and cartoonish to spoil an entertaining ride, even for more sensitive souls.

The Ugly Truth:

Django Unchained is a bloody brilliant masterpiece that shoots fresh life into the Western genre. A smoothly crafted script, a killer soundtrack and a near perfect cast makes this film easily one of Tarantino’s most satisfying and original efforts.

Check out Interviews below from the red carpet at the London premiere:

Anne Hathaway In New Shrew Adaptation

Anne Hathaway is currently busy collecting awards for her performance in Les Miserables but has now officially signed on for a modern day adaptation of Shakespeare classic The Taming of The Shrew, based on a screenplay by Abi Morgan (Shame,The Iron Lady).

There have already been numerous re-imaginings of the familiar Shakespearean comedy, most recently 10 Things I Hate About You, which starred Heath ledger, Julia Styles and a very fresh faced Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Presumably this latest version will aim to eclipse the dizzy heights of 90s teen comedies.