Oscars

Anne-Marie Duff and Andy Serkis have won the top acting prizes at this year's Evening Standard film awards. Duff claimed best actress for her role as John Lennon's mother in Nowhere Boy, with Serkis picking up the best actor gong for playing Ian Dury in Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll. After beating Oscar-nominated Carey Mulligan (An Education) and Kelly Macdonald (Merry Gentlemen) to the prize, the pregnant 39-year-old thanked husband James McAvoy in her acceptance speech. "I'd really like to ...  

 

President Arroyo is beaming with pride that one of the best animated picture nominees in the 82nd Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood next month was made in the Philippines. The President, addressing the 10th e-Services Global Sourcing Conference at the SMX Convention Center at the Mall of Asia in Pasay City last Tuesday, said the animated comedy film "Up" was a product of the country's booming information technology-business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry, particularly the high value-added segment of animation. She urged to public to watch the movie.  

'Dear John," a romantic drama starring Allentown native Amanda Seyfried, had a surprising No. 1 finish at the box office in the United States and Canada over the weekend, knocking Oscar-nominated ' 'Avatar' ' after seven weeks from its perch atop the rankings. "Dear John," opened with sales of $32.4 million for Sony Corp. , according to Hollywood.com Box-Office. "Avatar" had $23.6 million in receipts in second place.  

They pair again for Shutter Island , a mystery thriller that marks new territory for both men. The film, which opens in Australia on February 18, is as close as Scorsese has come to a horror film since Cape Fear, his 1991 remake with De Niro. In Shutter Island, DiCaprio plays Teddy Daniels, a US marshal in 1954 who investigates the disappearance of a murderess from a hospital for the criminally insane. Ask Scorsese why he's teaming for the fourth time in eight years with DiCaprio, and his answer ...

We did take after take, and I just wasn't getting it   -DiCaprio

 

When Andy Glantzman agreed to be filmed baring his soul about what it was like to lose his job, he didn't expect millions to see his confession. But instead of winding up in a documentary as he expected, Glantzman and 21 other fired workers found themselves with bit parts in the movieUp in the Airwhich last week earned six Oscar nominations, including best film and best director. The film stars George Clooney as a corporate hatchet man who fires people for a living.

Not just part of your professional life is taken away, but also part of your personal life   -Kevin Pilla

 

NEWRY-born animator Tomm Moore said he is absolutely shocked after a film-length cartoon he directed was nominated for an Oscar. The Secret of Kells will fight it out with Hollywood blockbusters such as The Fantastic Mr Fox and Up for Best Animated Feature Film at next month's Academy Awards. Mr Moore and staff at his Cartoon Saloon animation company in Kilkenny will travel to LA where they will rub shoulders with the stars and hopefully lift the most coveted prize in the filmmaking industry.

It’s a big, big surprise and the nomination is down to the hard work and fantastic skill of the whole crew here at Cartoon Saloon.   -Tomm Moore

 

The move comes as The Works International announced it had sold rights to Medallion Media to the stirring story of dolphin slaughter in the Japanese fishing town of Taiji. Medallion has set a tentative April slot. Until now Japanese distributors had shied away from the film in the light of the subject matter and the controversy sparked by the Japanese premiere at the Tokyo Film Festival last October.  

CARLOW comedienne and screenwriter Kathleen O'Rourke is off to Hollywood next month, thanks to a scary granny who tells terrifying bedtime tales. Kathleen is the writer of 'Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty', the six-minute film which was last week included in the Oscar nominations for Best Animation Short. It will be a case of from 'grimm' to glam for her when the glitzy awards ceremony is held in the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday March 7.