The Latest in Latino Entertainment News

NYFCO names ‘Chico & Rita’ Best Animated Feature

One of the movie critic’s group I belong to is The New York Film Critics Online (NYFCO). We held our thirteenth annual meeting on December 9th, 2012 at the LGBT Center in New York City to select our annual best of movie awards.

Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty” gathered momentum as NYFCO voted the film about the hunt for Osama Bin Ladin as the Best Film of 2012, with Bigelow honored for her direction and Mark Boal for his screenplay.  Daniel Day-Lewis received honors for his performance as Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” while veteran French actress Emmanuelle Riva was esteemed for her performance in Michael Haneke’s drama “Amour,” which also received NYFCO’s award for Foreign Language film.

Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Hathaway received kudos for Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress respectively in Spielberg’s “Lincoln” and Tom Hooper’s “Les Misérables.” Ben Affleck’s “Argo” received an award for its Ensemble Cast

Benh Zeitlin’s “Beasts of the Southern Wild” was feted for a Breakthrough Performance by then five-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis, and Zeitlin was honored as Debut Director.  The Spanish language “Chico & Rita” was honored as Animated Feature while “The Central Park Five” was selected as Documentary.

These are the awards selected by the 35-member organization in fifteen categories:

A complete list of winners follows:

Best Picture:
 Zero Dark Thirty

Best Actor:
 Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Best Actress
: Emmanuelle Riva, Amour

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty

Best Supporting Actor
: Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

Best Supporting Actress: 
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Breakthrough Performer:
 Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Debut Director: 
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Ensemble Cast
: Argo

Best Screenplay
: Zero Dark Thirty

Best Documentary: 
The Central Park Five

Best Foreign Language
: Amour

Best Animated Feature:
 Chico and Rita

Best Cinematography:
 Life of Pi

Best Use of Music: 
Django Unchained

NYFCO’s TOP TEN FILMS (alphabetical)

   Argo (Warner Bros)

   Beasts of the Southern Wild (Fox Searchlight)

   Django Unchained (The Weinstein Company)

   Les Misérables (Universal)

   Life of Pi (20th Century Fox)

   Lincoln (DreamWorks)

   The Master (The Weinstein Company)

   Moonrise Kingdom (Focus Features)

   Silver Linings Playbook (The Weinstein Company)

   Zero Dark Thirty (Columbia Pictures)

Is Alejandro González Iñárritu’s next film a comedy?

Ben Affleck‘s favorite director, Mexican helmer Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, is leeaving all the heavy depressing, multi-story dramas to make… a comedy. You heard that right, a comedy.

The name of the movie will be BIRDMAN and its premise will be about a former actor, who once played an iconic superhero, as he mounts a Broadway play in a bid to reclaim past glory. The movie will take place in one location over the course of three days as the actor juggles family, career and his sanity.. That sounds it’ll be either a hit or an embarassing failure. Nevertheless, I don’t mind evolution and aspiring to be more versatile.

Iñárritu said he co-wrote the film with Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo and is eyeing a start in March.

Word is he still is planning The Revenant with Leonardo DiCaprio, but there is no pre-production date set to start.

Guatemalan Oscar Isaac joins thriller ‘Mojave’

Guatemalan actor Oscar Isaac will be joining ‘Mojave,’ a thriller directed by William Monahan. Isaac who is one of the hottest rising actors in Hollywood will be a part of a story involving a desert escape by a criminal.

The director Monahan, won an Oscar for penning the Martin Scorsese crime drama The Departed, also wrote the script.

For those of you Latinos who don’t know who Isaac is, he was in The Bourne Legacy, Drive, Sucker Punch, Ten Years, Won’t Back Down and Madonna’s ‘W.E.’. Soon you can see him in Joel and Ethan Coen’s ‘Inside Llewyn Davis‘ about a musician in Greenwich Village.

‘Mojave’ will begin production in early 2013. 

Pedro Almodovar to be celebrated by Academy

Pedro Almodovar is being honored again, and this time, by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in London.

The event will feature a conversation with Almodovar and discussions with friends, colleagues and family members including Agustin Almodovar, filmmaker Stephen Frears, fashion guru Jean-Paul Gaultier, composer Alberto Iglesias and scriptwriter Peter Morgan.

Almodovar’s most recent film was The Skin I Live In, which grossed about $22 million worldwide and was released by Sony Pictures Classics in the U.S., where it grossed about $3.2 million.

His next film will be called Los Amantes Pasajeros (Standby Lovers) with Paz Vega as part of the cast. The Spanish movie, which Almodovar also wrote, follows a group of travelers who are placed in life-threatening situation aboard a plane flying to Mexico City. The passengers are defenseless in the face of danger, which provokes colorful confessionals that are their way to put out of mind the possibility they might be about to die.

Along with Vega, the movie stars Javier Camara (Talk to Her), Cecilia Roth (All About My Mother) and Lola Duenas (Volver). Spanish comedians Carlos Areces, Raul Arevalo and Jose Maria Yazpik are also in the cast.

Agustin Almodovar, the director’s brother, is producing the film. It is expected to shoot in Madrid this summer and will be released in spring 2013 by production company El Deseo.

‘Man of Steel’ – New poster hits the web!

After much anticipation, the new poster of “The Man of Steel” has been revealed. It shows the DC superhero handcuffed while being escorted by a group of soldiers, an obvious indication of what will happen in the plot. The poster was posted on The Dark Knight Rises Facebook page which revealed the exclusive Man of Steel poster as a reward that had been unlocked. 

It is expected that new movie stills, plus the highly awaited trailer will be released in the next few days. In fact, it is already certain that the trailer of the film, after the two almost identical teasers last July, will arrive during the premiere of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” on the 14 of this month. At least that is what director Zack Snyder confirmed in a press statement last month.

With Christopher Nolan as producer, the film features Henry Cavill in the role of Clark Kent / Superman, Amy Adams in skin Lois Lane, Michael Shannon in the role of General Zod, Antje Traue as Faora, Laurence Fishburne which Perry White (editor in chief of the Daily Planet), Kevin Costner impersonating Jonathan Kent, Diane Lane giving life to Martha Kent and Russell Crowe playing Jor-El. In turn, Jadin Gould are (is Lana Lang), Ayelet Zurer (Lara Lor-Van), Tahmoh Penikett (Henry Ackerson), Michael Kelly (Steve Lombard) and, among others, Richard Schiff (Dr. Emil Hamilton).

“The Man of Steel” will hit theaters on June 14, 2013.

What do you think of the poster? Leave your comments below.