Celebrating niche awards

Pictured is Jennifer Westfeldt receiving an award.

Left is a black and gold award with a square glass top containing a 3D styalised gold soundwave. Right are several CDFA awards, silver statuettes of a female figure. Left are the World Soundtrack Awards and Right are the statuettes given at the Costume Designers Guild Awards

Following on from Tis’ the season: A look at Film Awards, we’ve compiled a few lesser known awards, the Costume Designers Guild Awards, The World Soundtrack Awards and the Visual Effects Awards. Three entirely different yet equally interesting celebrations.

The Costume Designers Guild Awards have honoured costume designers in film since 1999.

The guild which was founded in 1953 represents costume designers, assistant costume designers and costume illustrators. Today the CDG includes around 750 costume designers, stylists and illustrators, many of which are based in LA.

The trophy for the CDG Awards is a sterling silver statuette created by costume designer, David Le Vay and manufactured by Italian jewellery designer Bvlgari. The beautiful and intricate design takes the form of an abstract female figure standing 37 centimetres tall and each one takes around 50 hours to make.

Until 2012, an annual ‘hall of fame’ award was presented, celebrating career achievement. One of the first winners in 1999 was Edith Head, the costume designer who sparked inspiration for Edna Mode the fictional eccentric fashion designer and superhero costume creator from The Incredibles.

The 16th Costume Designers Guild Awards will be held on February 22nd this year. Nominations include Suzy Benzinger for Blue Jasmine, Ann Maskrey, Richard Taylor and Bob Buck, for The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug and Catherine Martin for The Great Gatsby.

The 12th annual Visual Effects Awards will be held this year. The ceremony honours outstanding visual effects from throughout the past year and the artists behind them.

With more than 2,800 members in over 32 countries, the Visual Effects Society represents a wide breadth of visual effects experts including artists, technologists and model makers. The VES Awards have been held since 2003 when they celebrated achievement in 2002. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers won eight awards in the first ceremony, including Best Visual Effects in a Driven Motion Picture.

This year’s Visual Effects Awards will be held on February 12th at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Nominations are yet to be announced but we predict that Gravity, The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug and Star Trek into Darkness will do well.

Moving on to something quite different; the World Soundtrack Awards celebrate music in film. Partnered with the Film Festival Ghent, the awards have been celebrated alongside the festival since 2001.  The ceremony is held annually held each October in Belgium and awards include; Best Original Song Written for a Film, Best Original Soundtrack of the Year and the Lifetime Achievement Award.

The event often includes a performance from the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra which has strong ties with the Film Fest Ghent, regularly partnering for recordings and concerts. Dirk Brossé, the conductor of the BPO, composed the Emmy nominated score for BBC drama Parade’s End.

The statuette for the World Soundtrack Awards is based on a sine wave – a sound wave represented on a computer screen. The wave is cut down to one single stylised undulation, and is then looped five times creating the shape of a crown. In the glass top of the statuette the wave floats ‘as it is not subject to gravity’ and the base is black referencing Bakelite, an early plastic commonly used for radios.

The 2013 World Soundtrack Awards have already taken place. Skyfall was awarded the accolade of Best Original Song, and Life of Pi won both Best Original Film Score of the Year and Film Composer of the Year. The 2014 Awards will take place in October this year.

Events, offers and releases 30/12/13

Several lego minifigures run away from an explosion in a lego town.
Several lego minifigures run away from an explosion in a lego town.

Image via Forbes.com

Welcome to the New Year (nearly)! 2014 is a big year for film with lots of big releases. The Lego Movie comes out in February. The CGI stop motion style action comedy has been in development since 2008. With an all-star cast including Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks and Will Ferrell, it’s sure to be a hit.

At the end of March, Noah is released. It stars Russell Crowe, Anthony Hopkins and Emma Watson and is based on the story of Noah’s Ark.

April is a big month for comic book films with both the long awaited Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Amazing Spider Man 2 being released. The Winter Soldier is the fifth Marvel film following Thor: The Dark World (October 2011). Set two years after The Avengers we see Steve Rogers adapting to his contemporary surroundings, the action begins when a SHIELD compatriot is attacked. The Amazing Spiderman 2 features Electro and Rhino.

In May, Godzilla, X-Men: Days of Future Past and Maleficent join our screens.  Godzilla promises to be thrilling, retelling the story of Godzilla in modern times. The monster looks bigger than ever, and if the trailer is anything to go by, this is one to look forward too. The seventh film in the X-Men film series, Days of Future Past is a sequel to both The Last Stand (2006) and First Class (2011) and takes place in two time lines. Maleficent is a re-imagined take on Sleeping Beauty. A dark fantasy from two time Academy Award winner Robert Stromberg who worked on the production design of Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Oz: The Great and Powerful (2013).

In June 22 Jump StreetHow to Train Your Dragon 2. In the sequel to 21 Jump Street, Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum go undercover at high school to explore a drug problem. Another sequel featuring Jonah Hill is How to train your dragon 2. This animated action fantasy film begins five years on from the first film. Now with dragons on their side, the Vikings are exploring the Northern Hemisphere.

In the second half of 2014, you can look forward to; Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Jupiter Ascending, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Expendables 3, Jane Got a Gun, Gone Girl, Dumb and Dumber To, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, Horrible Bosses 2, Exodus, and The Hobbit There and Back Again.

What a brilliant year of film to look forward too!

 

Tis the season: a look at film awards

A black and white image a crowded room holding the guests of the first Academy Awards banquet at Roosevelt hotel
A black and white image a crowded room holding the guests of the first Academy Awards banquet at Roosevelt hotel

The first Academy Awards ceremony
Image via reelfxart.blogspot.co.uk

Christmas is soon to be over and the dull grey hues and cold winter weather still remain outside. Thankfully there is still a lot to celebrate as the film awards season is upon us.

A nude bronze statue holds a mask of comedy and tragedy in each hand

The SAG award. Image via www.sagawards.org

SAG Awards

Firstly the SAG awards, not a celebration of the more mature, SAG actually stands for the Screen Actors Guild Awards. The accolade celebrates performances in film and television. Its trophy is a 16” solid bronze nude male statuette titled ‘the actor’ which holds a mask of comedy and tragedy in each hand.

The first SAG awards were held in 1995, celebrating the previous year, broadcast from stage 22 of Universal Studios. The annual lifetime achievement award, which predates the first awards show by thirty years, was given to George Burns. The show was his final television appearance before he died at 100 years old.

This year the 20th annual SAG awards will be presented on January 18th at the Shrine Exposition Centre in Los Angeles. 12 years a slave is nominated for four awards including, the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, Supporting Role and Female Actor in a Supporting Role.

BAFTAs

A bronze mask sands on a small marble block.

BAFTA award. Image via en.wikipedia.org

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (formed in 1947) holds several awards each year, split into several different categories of Film, Television, Games and Children’s. From 1968 the Film and Television awards were held together in one ceremony until 1998.

The first awards were designed by English sculptor Henry Moore, and were large, bronze statues of a seated lady. The current BAFTA award which you will probably recognise is the iconic bronze mask, based on a design by Mitzi Cunliffe and has been presented since 1976. The first BAFTA mask was presented to Sir Charles Chaplin, better known as Charlie, who was honoured as an Academy Fellow.

The BAFTA Film Awards have been held in the Royal Opera House since 2008 and this years celebration will be held there on Sunday the 16th of February.

A tall shiny bronze statue on a small round black pedestal.

The Oscar award. Image via www.fxguide.com

Oscars

Finally; the Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars. Arguably the most prestigious, and one of the oldest, the Academy Awards have been held since the first ceremony in 1929. It was a far smaller affair than the huge event it is today, 270 people attended the first ceremony at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

The award winners were announced three months before the first ceremony, but from the second awards they have been kept secret. Since 1941 the Academy adopted a strict sealed envelope policy after the Los Angeles Times printed the award winners names in its evening addition before the 1940’s ceremony.

The first awards had 12 categories, since then there have been more and more additions including, awards for Film Editing, Music Scoring, and Song (7th awards), Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress (9th awards), Special Effects (12th awards), an Award for Make Up (54th Awards) and The Animated Feature Film Award (54th awards).

The 86th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday March 2nd in the Dolby Theatre where they have been held for the last 12 years.

I will be looking at some more niche and unique awards soon, those which often don’t get such a look in from the average movie goer. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for post updates.

This week in history: 9th – 15th December

Alan RIckman carries a discheveled Kate Winslet through a grassy field
Alan RIckman carries a discheveled Kate Winslet through a grassy field

Image via janeaustensworld.wordpress.com

Almost half a century ago on December 11th 1967, Stanley Kramer’s comedy Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was released. The film pushed boundaries by positively portraying an interracial marriage between Joanna (Katherine Houghton) the daughter of a liberal upper-class parents, and John (Sidney Poiter) a young black physician.

This was rare for a film at the time, in 1967 interracial marriage was still illegal in 17 states of the USA. Sidney Poiter was also the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor.

On December 13th 1995, Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility was released, it was the first cinematic Austen adaptation in 50 years. The adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel has a large cast of well known actors, including a young Emma Thompson, a very young Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman.

Emma Thompson wrote the screenplay for the film. While working on the script her computer developed a problem and she lost the file. She took the computer to Stephen Fry for help. After seven hours he managed to retrieve the file.

Festive favourites: three Christmas must see’s

A middle aged man, Will Ferrell, lies across two tiny beds dressed as an elf in a red jumpsuit.
A middle aged man, Will Ferrell, lies across two tiny beds dressed as an elf in a red jumpsuit.

Image via www.focusfeatures.com

It’s just over two weeks until Christmas day so it’s about time that you snuggled down with a glass of mulled wine, a mince pie and some of the best festive films. Here are a few of our choices blended with a bit of trivia that you probably didn’t know about these festive favourites.

It wouldn’t be Christmas without at least one showing of Love Actually, especially as it is ten years old this year. Essentially a holiday rom-com, Love Actually is filled with heart-warming tales alongside a star studded cast; from Martin Freeman to Keira Knightley. If you haven’t seen it (it’s on TV every Christmas, there’s no excuse) the film follows the interlinking lives of eight couples and their curious relationships, a month before Christmas in London.

Kris Marshall, (who you may recognise as the father from the BT adverts) plays Collin Frissel, actually refused his pay cheque for the scene in Love actually where three American girls undress him due to the fact that he reportedly had so much fun filming the 21 takes; he was willing to work for free.

Another cheering fact is that the lovely airport compilation of loved ones reuniting is real. A team of camera men filmed for the entirety of a week in Heathrow Airport, asking for permission from people when they captured a perfect moment.

Released in the same year, Elf is a Christmas classic. It’s an uplifting tale of a man raised as one of Santa’s elves, searching for his identity in the real world to hilarious consequence. You’d have to be a scrooge not to enjoy watching six foot three Will Ferrell prancing around in an elf suit. It was certainly distracting to drivers when Ferrell walked through Lincoln tunnel in his costume, so much so that it caused minor traffic accidents.

When Santa shows Michael his nice list, all of the names are people who worked on the movie, from Victoria Down, a key make-up artist, to Jimmy Miller the executive producer.

Finally, a timeless film, The Muppet Christmas Carol, released in 1992. We all know that this ageless picture follows the tale of a Christmas Carol but retold by the lovable Muppets cast. What you probably didn’t know is that there is a shop in the film named ‘Micklewhite’ after Michael Caine, who plays the part of Scrooge, as his real name is Maurice Micklewhite.

The film is also dedicated to the memory of Jim Henson and Richard Hunt. Jim Henson was the creator of the Muppets and the voice of Kermit and Richard Hunt was a puppeteer.

There you have it, three Christmas classics that you should definitely watch before the big day. Even if you’ve seen them many times before, they are guaranteed to get you in the Christmas spirit, and if you haven’t seen them then what are you waiting for? Go get your festive onesie on and get comfy with a spiced hot chocolate.