‘The White Ribbon’ & ‘Let The Right One In’ Sweep The Board At The Robers.
Michael Haneke & Thomas Alfredson swept the board at the 2009 Official Rober Awards and the Rober’s Film Poll respectively.
The Rober Academy awarded ’The White Ribbon’ with seven different prizes, including the ones for best picture, director and original screenplay. Meanwhile, fans of the modern vampire classic ‘Let The Right One In’ made the Swedish movie smash the competition in eight different categories at this year’s poll.
Complete list of winners and tally after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Film Review: Top 40 Movies Of 2009
We’ve already recalled the biggest disappointments and surprises of the year. Finally the time has come to reveal the movies we enjoyed the most.
The war in Iraq; the life of a gay political activist in San Francisco; the origins of the nazi mentality; a refreshingly contemporary look at the vampires’ myth in Sweden and racial conflicts in French jails and schools were the locations of some of the most rewarding film works of the last 12 monts. After the jump, the Top 40 Best Pictures of 2009. Read the rest of this entry »
U.S. Girls Replaces Pantha Du Prince As No 1 In The Loop.
Megan Remy’s project US Girls has replaced Pantha Du Prince at the top of our loop thanks to the hypnotically fuzzy ‘Red Ford Radio’, the highlight of her second album ‘Go Grey’.
Joanna Newsom’s ‘Baby Birch’; Vampire Weekend’s new single off their second opus ‘Contra’; Broken Social Scene and Gorillaz Feat. Gruff Rhys & De La Soul are some of the week’s new entries.
Check the full loop here.
You can also listen to an extended selection of our current favourite tracks @ www.hypem.com/indaloop.
The Week That Was (04-03-2010): Gonjasufi; Gorillaz; Morning Benders; The Drums; Pavement; Foals…
In what’s been another bumper week for quality new albums, nearly 10 high profile releases, all hitting the shops next Mondays, were previewed online. Beginning by Gonjasufi, the yoga teacher, Flying Lotus collaborator and spiritual electronica purveyor that with ‘A Sufi & A Killer’ has got one of the most exciting albums of the year on his hands. It can still be heard in full at Clash magazine’s website.
MySpace is offering a few notable previews. Namely, Broken Bells’ debut album, the project formed by The Shins’ frontman James Mercer and Danger Mouse, already shaking alternative circles; Art-rockers Liars’ comeback with ‘Sisterworld’, hailed as a return to the peaks of ‘Drum’s Not Dead’ and energetic hardcore rockers Titus Andronicus with their second work ‘The Monitor’.
Damon Albarn’s and co animated popstars Gorillaz are back with a third offering, that on first impression sounds like the band’s most accomplished effort to date. A constellation of veteran stars –Lou Reed, Snoop Dogg, Mos Deff, Bobby Womack; Gruff Rhys; De La Soul, detc- collaborates. British newspaper The Guardian still has the premiere and the band is currently invading all audiovisual channels with all sorts of initiatives to support the launch.
Spinner’s listening post was humming and offering a bunch of interesting new albums including the latest from The Ruby Sun’ ‘Fight Softly’; The Besnard Lakes’ ‘Are The Roaring Road’ and Frightened Rabbitt’s ‘ The Winter Of Mixed Drinks’
Last, but not least, San Francisco indie pop craftsmen The Morning Benders have put together what is likely becoming their breakthrough record, ‘Big Echo’. Happy listening!
Not a week with big headlines to remember. We worried about the news of Guru’s being in a coma after a heart attack; luckily news of his evolution were positive and the rapper is allegedly recovering. Other than that, the first gig of Pavement’s long awaited reunion flooded the internet from Auckland. Videos of some of the concert highlights can be watched here.
Apart from the ones that already went to the top of our loops, among the tracks that have caught our attention this week we find most promising new band Rober nominees The Drums, following up their surftastic debut EP with a slice fine indie pop called ‘Just Friends’.
Devo announced their return to the studio after two decades and offered their rather good ‘Fresh’ while launching a curious colour study research through their website. On the other side of the coin, David Byrne and Fatboy Slim gave us a new taste of their Imelda Marcos inspired project. ‘Why Don’t You Love Me’ counts with Cyndi Lauper and Tori Amos as lead vocalists and it builds on the impression that the project is shaping up to be one of the year’s biggest disappointments.
Three returning bands were offering free goodies to their fans. British angular rockers Foals’ first taster from their second album ‘Spanish Sahara’ was unveiled this week. The Mount Kimbie remix of the track was given away in exchange for your email. Courtney Love did the same with ‘Skinny Little Bitch’. The first single of Hole’s controversial reunion comes years after Love’s career sank and looks a bit as a desperate attempt to rescue her career. Love’s former boyfriend and nineties alt-rock titan Billy Corgan, carried on his plan to slowly giving away his double new album –rumours of a ‘Mellon Collie’ soundalike abounds- free through the Smashing Pumpkins website. The first bits don’t look too promising either.
Elsewhere The Fader offered as usual a free download of their monthly podcast, including excellent stuff by new female rap sensation Nicky Minaj; Midlake; etc. and influential blog Gorilla Vs Bear offered a link to the new Rangers mixtape.
Many new and interesting videos also grazed the internet during the last seven days. Domino’s latest discovery Villagers; ‘Freak’, Estelle’s follow-up to ‘American Boy’; Crookers italo-bonkers ‘Festa Festa’ from the DJ duo’s imminent debut album ‘Tons Of Friend’
South-African trailer trash satire rappers are poised to be the next big novelty thing thanks to songs like the rather funny ‘Enter The Ninja’. And last, with certain delayed compared to the date their singles leaked, both Goldfrapp and Gorillaz have finally delivered their new videos. Goldfrapp’s ‘Rocket’ is an homage to the eighties sounds and clips that have inspired their fifth album. Meanwhile the biggest cartoon rock star ever have hired action star Bruce Willis to appear in their new promo ‘Stylo‘.
2009 Film Review: 10 Surprises & Guilty Pleasures
But if the year was full of disappointments, it didn’t lack of surprises either; namely, the spectacular rise of science-fiction in all of its fronts, from the more mainstream –the rebirth of the Star Trek franchise- to the art house –Duncan Jones’ debut ‘Moon’-, which next to commercial and creative successes such as ‘District 9’ brought back the best qualities of a genre considered by many as minor and almost confined to comic adaptations in recent years. Horror kept on going stronger during the summer at the US box office and a series of Catalonian directors took it by assault; some of them leaving behind the limitations of trashy B-movie-like filmmaking and producing more than decent works such as ‘Orphan’. Elsewhere, among the landslide of stereotypical pictures masterminded for the family; children or female audience clusters we were able to find the odd unexpected jewel.
The next 10 movies were the biggest surprises and guilty pleasures the film industry provided in 2009. Read the rest of this entry »
2009 Film Review: 10 Disappointments
Last year was sadly plagued with all sort of cinematographic deceptions: we found some of our favourite authors struggling to make sense; some others venturing into register changes with disheartening results; a few high-profile literary adaptations sinked and mainstream cinema gave further proof it has completely swallowed the independent way of film-making that meant such an influential batch of fresh talent during the 80’s and 90’s. The following ten titles arrived full of promise, but were not able to deliver… Read the rest of this entry »
The Week That Was (25-02-2010): Joanna Newsom; Liars; Roman Polanski; Pantha Du Prince; Devo
Last week it seemed like there was only one record release: Joanna Newsom’s third album’s triple extravaganza has taken the media by storm. Newsom has never been short of ambition and her former opus “Ys” became such a landmark that few thought it could be matched. But the first reactions to “Have One On Me” have been superlative. However, a couple of listenings have left us still unsure if three albums worth of material were necessary or “Have One On Me” would have been much better if shortened. Listen in full during this week at NPR and take your own conclusions.
Joanna Newsom casts a shadow over the rest of the week’s releases, among them ‘Similes’, the new record by Phil Elverum’s ambient project Eluvium and the rather lackluster posthumous sixth volume of Johnny Cash’ “American Recordings”.
Haiti and the many charitable musical causes to help with the earthquake’s aftermath were still generating news. After the devastating catastrophe the world had to suffer –for a good cause- reinterpretations of R.E.M.’ s ‘Everybody Hurts’ performed by Simon Cowell’s puppet factory next to some other British stars and in the US ‘We Are The World’ by a large list of A, B and even some C list artists that happen to be around on Grammy night; now its time for an all-star record that you may actually want to hear: Shane MacGowan and friends covering ‘I Put A Spell On You’. The Pogues’ frontman got Nick Cave, Johnny Depp, Mick Jones, Chrissy Hynde and a few other friends involved in the recording.
Primal Scream generated some headlines by announcing they will be touring in the autumn playing their seminal album “Screamadelica”. The band joins an illustrious list of artists that in recent times are following the trend of playing classic albums in full. More live news, Fleet Foxes’ frontman Robin Pecknold will be touring with Joanna Newsom in what’s likely to be one of the most talked-about double bills of the year and Fairport Convention veteran Richard Thompson will be the curator of London Southbank’s annual festival Meltdown.
Roman Polanski was the toast of the Berlinale after being awarded as best Director for his new film ‘The Ghost Writer‘. The filmmaker was not able to collect the prize as he’s still in house arrest waiting for new developments in his long-standing conflict with the US law. The winner of the Golden Bear was the Turkish film ‘Bal’ (Honey). More details about the rest of the festival’s winners here.
More movie news, Oren Moverman, whose striking debut ‘The Messenger’ has earned an Oscar nomination for best script, will be the director of a film about Kurt Kobain’s life. Moverman is no stranger to writing about music. He earned rave reviews for the imaginative script of Bob Dylan’s biopic ‘I’m Not There’. This week also saw the Oscar nominated shorts hit the American cinemas, a look at this year’s contenderds here.
Pantha Du Prince offered an excellent show at Cargo, mostly based on the tracks of his magnificent recent album “Black Noise”. The project of Hamburg producer Hendrick Weber showcased his excellent melting pot of shoegaze; Detroit and minimal techno influences in front of an ecstatic audience.
Last week we finally finished watching all of this year’s Oscar nominated films, reaffirming our overall impression that 2009 won’t go down in history as a vintage year for movies. The last two films on hitting British cinemas are ‘Crazy Heart’, Scott Cooper’s debut as a director, which tells the story of a country singer whose career is fading. There’s nothing new or ground-breaking about it, but Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s performances elevate it from being just an average fare. At this state nobody doubts Bridges will grab the statuette on Oscar night.
Other film whose actors have scooped some nominations is Michael Hoffman’s ‘The Last Station’, a period drama about the last days of Russian writer Leon Tolstoi; the peculiar cult surrounding his ideals and the conflict they generate between him and his wife, played by the always excellent Helen Mirren. Both Mirren and Christopher Plummer are nominated and deservedly so, but the film shifts between comedy and drama, failing to feel truly accomplished as either.
New and noteworthy tracks of the week: Beach House, fresh from having released one of the best albums of the year, unveiled a new track “The Arrangement”, destined to be a B-side for an exclusive single the Baltimore couple is releasing for record day. This week also saw the return of the Canadian supergroups, with both The New Pornographers –‘Your Hands (Together)’ and Broken Social Scene ‘World Sick’ offering the first taster from their respective new projects. Bill Callahan was also in the news with the announcement of an imminent best live moments compilation. The anticipating track “Bowery” hit the blogs a few days ago.
Video of the week goes for Vampire Weekend’s star-studded new promo in which the preppie New Yorkers have called their celebrity friends to be filmed during a strange tennis match. Jake Gyllenhaal; RZA; Lil Jon & Joe Jonas helped putting images to “Giving Up The Gun”.
Other interesting clips: Liars finally offered a video for “Scissor”, the first single from their imminent “Sisterworld”. Xiu Xiu’s “Death Grey” and Kanye West still releasing tracks from his tepidly received latest record “808’s & Heartbreak” brought us a disturbing video for “Coldest Winter”
And the best free stuff of the week includes surprises such as a new track by Devo. The American new wave masters, after their successful return to the live circuit, announced their first studio album in two decades with the free download of the rather excellent new track “Fresh”. The band is also asking their fans for help choosing colours for their new art and image through a curious marketing research happening at their website.
Antifolk supergroup The Bundles, fronted by ex-Moldy Peaches Kymia Dawson and Jeffrey Lewis, introduced themselves by giving away one of their songs, ‘Pirates Declare War’.
And three top-notch mixtapes for your collection: The way for the imminent collaboration between Method Man; Ghostface Killah & Raekwon –finally under the name of Meth, Goth & Rae- is being paved with a mixtape full of both classic moments of the Wu-tang members and new track premieres. “Avenging Angels” can be downloaded here. Canadian electroclash purveyor Chilly Gonzales is back with his “Pianist Envy” mix; and for the lovers of nu-cumbia DJ Orion has compiled another scorcher called “Carajo Colombia” than can be downloaded on a pay as much as you like basis.
Caribou Conquers The Loop With ‘Odessa’.
Caribou’s latest track ‘Odessa’ is the new number one in our loop. The first taster of the band’s new album “Swim” has climbed its way to the top after four weeks, beating up competition from the likes of Yeasayer and Pantha Du Prince.
New entries of the week include Goldfrapp’s poptastic ‘Believer’; Los Planetas new single featuring Spanish indie singer La Bien Querida and electronica sensation Gonjasufi, sampling an obscure number by Spanish achilifunk duo from the seventies Las Grecas on his ‘Kowboyz and Indians’.
Check the full loop here.
2009 Film Review: 10 Worst Movies
As it has become tradition, we begin our annual film recap with those movies we disliked the most. This year we weren’t brave enough to go and see Transformers; Year Zero; Terminator IV or any romantic comedy, which surely saved us from a lot of unsavoury experiences. Not even one of the razzie nominees passed through the filters of our radar. However, there are always particularly vulnerable moments in which some unworthy film manages to fool the boundaries of our rigorous quality control and takes it to a close cinema. The following ten were the worst culprits:
Read the rest of this entry »
Film Review 2009
(Edit © Kees van Dijkhuizen, 2009)
2009 ended on a rather low note, finishing a decade in film with no shortage of ups and downs. It was a year that started with the omen of huge changes for the industry, the most significant among them was the adoption of 3-D by all Hollywood majors as the new reigning format. 3-D offers the advantage of successfully putting piracy at bay, as well as being the perfect excuse to raise the price of the admisión, with the alibi of the more expensive technological novelty.
The extra dimension has meant already a big push for popular genres such as animation (“Up”; “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”); horror and science-fiction. “Avatar” is now confirmed as the biggest grossing movie of all time. But its predictable boom was preceded by other excellent works still in the conventional two dimensions –“District 9”; “Star Trek” o “Moon”. Altogether they have put back in the map a long-time devalued genre, lately reduced to the realms of comic adaptation.
But if blockbusters and pop-corn consumption are in good health; art house and world movies gave worrying signs of creative draught, surrounded by alert voices against the narrative impoverishment 3-D is likely to brin. World cinematography has endured a particularly weak twelve months in which the emerging Asian and Latin-American productions seem to have lost part of its attraction in the western world.
Europe offered two of the year’s biggest surpirses: “Let The Right One In” and “A Prophet”, but it didn’t shine exactly for the quantity of its output. The year for reputable authors was rather mixed: For every masterpiece (Haneke impressed with “The White Ribbon”; The Coens achieved at last their long-time pursued great comedy in “A Serious Man”; Kathryn Bigelow’s raw vision of war in Irak caused enormous impact; Gus Van Sant was in charge to take to the big screen the iconic life of gay politician Harvey Milk and Charlie Kauffman debuted as director with the peak of his already verified unique imagination, “Synecdoche, New York”) we also found multiple flops (New works by Frears; Almodóvar; Eastwood; Amenabar and many others didn’t reach their expected high standards). All of it was underlined by notably popular movies such as “500 Days Of Summer”, irrefutable evidence of the ethos and esthetic values of the American independent filmmaking being totally swallowed by the mainstream, without having found anything that replaces them –the mumblecore trend is still in its embryonic phase and cannot considered a true heir.
And finally, the disturbing impression that the film industry is confining the most serious and adult cinema for the months surrounding the awards season; leaving the rest of the year just for blockbusters and a few minor titles that didn’t achieve much luck in terms of nominations or honors. This reduces the diversity of the cinematic offer and does not bring much joy to those who conceive cinema as an art able to transcend mere entertainment.
The Week In News (17-02-2010): Berlinale; Primavera; ATP New York; Prince; The Knack…
Although winter is still causing havoc, the festival season is getting closer and some of the big players are wrapping up their bills. The biggest news of the week came from Barcelona, where the Primavera Sound festival has announced the last batch of artists completing a superb line up for its tenth anniversary. To the already confirmed headliners Pavement; Pixies; Wilco and Orbital, the organizers have added eighties electro-pop favorites The Pet Shop Boys; Gary Numan and Marc Almond; current British sensations Florence + The Machine and The XX; Low and The Charlatans will perform their respective classic albums “The Great Destroyer” and “Some Friendly”. All of it balanced with the best new music around: Beach House; Surfer Blood; Sleigh Bells; The Drums; Owen Pallett, etc. have also been added. More details are available at the festival’s website.
Meanwhile, ATP – which also curates one of the stages at Primavera – has announced that Jim Jarmusch will be choosing the artists to perform in one the days of the festival’s New York branch. The independent filmmaker is no stranger to pop music. Many rock and hip-hop artists have featured on his movies. Among his first confirmed choices: the live return of Wu-Tang member Chief Raekwon.
The obituary of the week is for The Knack’s singer Doug Fieger, who died from cancer at the age of 57. He will always be remembered for the all-time favourite “My Sharona.” More sad news of a completely different kind, Google’s war on blogs has been quite pro-active, taking a number of notorious victims during the past weeks. In what looks rather like another pathetic industry attempt to control freedom in new media.
Some internet archeology led to some precious findings in the shape of some amazing homemade videos of Prince & The Revolution’s rehearsals for their 1984 tour. We also discovered the clues for an unsolved mistery, a viral video named iamamiwhoami that’s supposed to hint at a high profile new release from a well known female artist. Cristina Aguilera? Amy Winehouse? Goldfrapp?
In the nostalgia department, the Dirty Projectors have announced they will perform their 2005 album “The Getty Address” live; in the meantime, a recent gig got them together with Beyoncé’s sister Solange, who made an impressive cover of the band’s single “Stillness is the move”. Meanwhile, The Bird & The Bee, the quirky pop-duo signed by Blue Note, has given details of a new album full of Hall & Oates covers.
Nick Cave & Bad Seeds herald a second batch of remasters, including those for “Tender Prey” and “The Good Son”. The cavernous singer, next to Rober award nominee actor Andy Serkis, is also involved on a motion capture of Bertol Bretch anti-capitalist opus “Threepenny Opera”; and last, but not least, Cave is one of the guests in Shane McGowan’s charity cover of “I put the spell on you”, whose proceeds will be destined to Haiti. Johnny Depp and other rock icons are also meant to feature.
Movie wise, The Berlin Film Festival has been monopolizing the headlines, with the returns of Scorsese and his adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s novel “Shutter Island” and Polanski with “The Ghost Writer”; plus films by Yimou; Vinterberg and Chlodenko enjoying a warm reception. Follow the daily reviews here.
The mind-blowing imagination of Spike Jonze has produced a new fruit, a 30 min short film called “I’m here” whose trailer has just seen the light of day. In the notorious soundtracks wagon, James Murphy will provide the music for the next Noah Baumbach opus “Greenberg”. As he did with Jack Black, the director is giving Ben Stiller a chance to shine in a complete different register, away from his usual comic roles. We hope the results are better than the ones achieved with Black. In the Meantime, Murphy’s longtime music partner Tim Goldsworthy has announced his departure from their co-created DFA label.
Our weekly date with free stuff was on hiatus last week, but one more time we’ve found plenty of free material worthy of your time, including this new single by promising indie-pop band from Berkeley, California, The Morning Benders; a first taster from forthcoming second album “Echo Sky” that is been offered as a free download. German electronica masters To Rococo Rot are back and they are also giving away the track “Working against time” from their new album “Speculation”.
More returns with single giveaway. Archie Bronson’s Outfit launch “Coconut” – their third album after a four-year gap – with “Shark’s teeth”.
In the mixtapes department, Ngunzunguzu offered their 80-looking “Moments In Love”, named after the Art of Noise track of the same title. Autechre is the latest act to join Fact magazine series of “Fact mixes” and British drone master Forest Swords has done the same for the highly regarded blog Gorilla Vs. Bear.
The Week That Was (17-02-2010): Strange Boys; Ganja Sufi; Los Punsetes; Johnny Cash…
Posted by rober in The Week That Was on February 17th, 2010
With the impression that this was at last a quieter week for new albums, we begin our look at the music that’s made an impact over the last seven days with the Spanish band Los Punsetes – part of the new indie scene from Madrid. Their simply titled “LP2″ is about to hit the Iberian shops, anticipated by this as comic as graphic video for the first single “Tus Amigos (Your Friends)”.
More European music, the Danish orchestral-pop collective Efterklang is streaming “Music Chairs” -their third studio album and first for 4AD- in Myspace. Vinnie Reilly’s Durutti Column return with a tribute to the late factory records’ honcho Tony Wilson in “A Paean To Wilson” that’s earning rave reviews, hailed as the Column’s best work in many years; and Field Music finally unveiled their awaited double album “Measure”.
In the US, Kentucky musicians Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore have made a benefit album packed with gorgeous acoustic melodies, “Dear Companion”, aiming at drawing attention to the problem of mountaintop removal coal mining in central Appalachia. Meanwhile, Xiu Xiu returns with is chamber pop drenched in drama and emotional overload with “Dear God, I Hate Myself”, and highly regarded garage revivalists The Strange Boys got their second album ready .
In the songs department, Johnny Cash’s record label unveiled the title track and first taster for the sixth volume of American Recordings. Rick Rubin may have found enough material as to put together a new album in the series, but overally it doesn’t look like a match for the former volumes, which meant a second coming for the late legend.
Other highlights of the week were the return of cyber-soul singer Janelle Monae next to Outkast’s Big Boi in “Tightrope”; Robyn teaming up with Diplo and getting soaked in Caribbean dancehall with “No hassle”; and Diplo again launching a new Major Lazer EP with the standout track “Sound Of Siren” featuring M.I.A. and Busy Signal.
Oxford combo Stornoway -highly tipped for glory in the British isles this year- offered a new slice of their pleasant folk-pop called “I Saw You Blink”. Our favourite American lo-fi purveyors, Woods, released a new single “I was gone” while revealing another track, “I’m Not Gone”, through the blogosphere. Energetic guitar fuzz duo Japandroids announced a series of five 7”, beginning with their new track “Art Czars” and the James Mercer-Danger Mouse collaboration Broken Bells, kept on rationing the content of their imminent album, and unleash the second taster “Vaporize”.
But the surprise of the week, though, was new Warp signee Gonja Sufi, who unveiled several tracks of his debut “A sufi and a killer” to huge acclaim. Everyone from Pitchfork to Thom Yorke is currently digging his music. In the player below, you can listen to the a few songs, including “Ancestors” produced by Flying Lotus and “KowboyzandIndians” which samples “Bella Kali” an obscure gem from Spanish Achilifunk duo from the 70’s Las Grecas.
Among the videos of the week Phil Elverum’s ambient project Eluvium with this strangely compelling moving shot of tall buildings; Erykah Badu kept her media frenzy for her second instalment of Nu Amerykah with a new kaleidoscopic video featuring Lil Wayne as shown in her website and the British eccentric Female collective Gaggle was introduced to the world with their drinking anthem “I Hear Flies”
Barbadian superstar Rihanna demonstrated that imitation is the best form of flattery by copying M.I.A.’s saturated visual style in her new video “Rude Boy”. The similarity is so obvious that Diplo himself has made a mash-up between the song and M.I.A.’s ”Boyz”. Long time no see Brit urban star Ms. Dynamite returns as feature vocalist in DJ Zinc’s club stormer “Wale Out”; Brit newcomers Gentle Friendly and and experimental Dj Jonah Reindhart also provided some visual excitement during the past seven days.
Hot Chip Take In The Loop.
British electropop greats Hot Chip are taking in our loop this week. Until now, they had been regarded mostly as a singles band, but their fourth record “One Life Stand” has been universally saluted as their more compact album to date.
The band will have to endure strong competition from The Magnetic Fields, Caribou and Yeasayer in order to maintain the peak position.
New entries include glo-fi duo Toro & Moi; Arcade Fire’s string arranger Owen Pallett and Sigur Rós’ lead singer gone solo Jonsi.
Check The Loop here.
The Films Of Haneke; Bigelow & Alfredson favorites for the Robers.
This year’s most nominated film in the Rober Awards poll is a triple tie-up between Michael Haneke’s astonishing vision of the elements in German society which led to the origin of Nazism, “The White Ribbon”; Kathryn Bigelow’s impressive Iraq war movie “The Hurt Locker” and Thomas Alfredson poetic take on the vampire myth in “Let The Right One In”. Each of them has been nominated in eight categories.
A Prophet; District 9; Milk and Synecdoche, New York all follow closely with six nominations apiece.
Popular favourites such as Avatar; Slumdog Millionaire and An Education are also featured in different categories. The new mid-February deadline, put in place to avoid the gap between the US and Europe different release dates, means that for a year only titles belonging to two different award seasons are in the race. 2009’s Oscar contenders such as Slumdog Millionaire; Doubt and The Wrestler are in contention next to this year’s candidates such as Precious or Up In The Air.
You can enter our poll here.
Check the full nominations tally after the jump: Read the rest of this entry »
English 
Español (Spanish)