The Screen Life

Last night several major contenders stopped off at three separate awards ceremonies on their way to possible Oscar glory in March, as the WGA, ASC, and Annie Awards all announced their winners.

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) awarded Spike Jone (Her) for Original Screenplay and Billy Ray (Captain Phillips) for Adapted. These awards sometimes don’t translate to Oscars since every year several major contenders won’t pass the WGA’s strict eligibility rules. Such is the case in this years Adapted category, where presumed frontrunner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) was ineligible. For Original, however, the nominees match 5-for-5 between the Guild and the Academy. So far it’s been a tight exciting race, between nomination leader American Hustle and the arguably more inventive and writerly Her. The latter’s win last night could signal an eventual win in March, but don’t count out the former. It’s clearly beloved and may be the best option to give David O. Russell an Oscar.

In the Documentary category Oscar-snubbed Sarah Polley won for Stories We Tell (which I still really really need to see). Scroll down for the complete list of WGA award winners.

The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) gave their top award to Gravity‘s Emmanuel Lubezki. This is pretty unsurprising, as Lubezki has been one of the most dominant frontrunners in this entire season. That said, it’s a telling win: This is the first 3D work to be awarded by the ASC, who recently passed over eventual Oscar-winners Hugo and Life of Pi. If Lubezki can win despite their more… “traditional” preferences, nothing can stop him now. And it’s a good thing too. He is a fantastic cinematographer, and even though this is his third ASC win after Children of Men and The Tree of Life, he has never won the Oscar. (The latter lost out to Life of Pi, as I mentioned earlier.) Scroll down for the complete list of ASC award winners.

The Annie Awards are often one of my favorite lists, since they have lots of very specific awards for various area of expertise in animation. This year the Oscar frontrunner Frozen dominated with 5 awards, including Best Animated Feature. Elsewhere The Croods pick up 3 wins and the Oscar-snubbed Pixar entry, Monsters University got 2. Hayao Miyazaki’s final film The Wind Rises won for writing. Disney’s short film Get A Horse! took that category, on it’s way to a probable Oscar win for the same. Futurama and Adventure Time each won a couple of TV awards and Pacific Rim  won for Animated Effects in a Live Action Production. Despicable Me 2, which actually had the majority of nominations, only tok a single win, for it’s commercial.

Finally, Chipotle Scarecrow won Best Animated Special Production. I caught this at the recent St Louis International Film Festival. It’s a fantastic 3 minute corporate promo for Chipotle that, I’m not embarrassed to admit, actually brought me to tears. You should really see it if you haven’t. I embedded the YouTube video below. Check it out, and then scroll down for the complete list of Annie Award winners.

WGA AWARDS (Click here for the complete list of nominees)
Best Original Screenplay: Spike Jonze, “Her”
Best Adapted Screenplay: Billy Ray, “Captain Philli[ps”
Best Documentary Screenplay: Sarah Polley, “Stories We Tell”

Television Categories:
Comedy Series: “Veep”
Drama Series: “Breaking Bad”
New Series: “House of Cards”
Episodic Comedy: Kack Burditt and Robert Carlock, “30 Rock” (“Hogcock!”)
Episodic Drama: Gennifer Hutchison, “Breaking Bad” (“Confessions”)
Long Form – Adapted: Shawn Slovo, “Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight”
Animation: Joel H. Cohen, “The Simpsons” (“A Test Before Trying”)
Comedy or Variety Series: “The Colbert Report”
Comedy or Variety Specials: “Blake Shelton’s Not So Family Christmas”
Daytime Drama: “Days of Our Lives”
Childrens – Episodic & Specials: Vincent Brown, “A.N.T. Farm” (“InfluANTces”)
Documentary – Current Events: Marcela Gaviria and Martin Smith, “Frontline” (“Egypt in Crisis”)
Documentary – Other Than Current Events: Randall MacLowry and Michelle Ferrari, “American Experience” (“Silicon Valley”)
News – Analysis, Feature or Commentary: Michael Rey, Oriana Zill de Granados and Michael Radutzky, “60 Minutes” (“Lethal Medicine”)
News – Regularly Scheduled, Bulletin or Breaking Report: Lisa Ferri and Matt Negrin, “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” (“Tragedy at Newtown”)
Quiz and Audience Patricipation: John Duarte, Harry Friedman, Mark Gaberman, Debbie Griffin, Michele Loud, Robert McClenaghan, Jim Rhine, Steve D. Tamerius and Billy Wisse, “Jeopardy!”
Television Graphic Art and Animation: David Rosen, CBS News Animations: “Brain Injury,” “Pills,” “Bionic Leg,” “Midland Parade,” “Concordia Salvage”
Promotional Writing and Graphic Animation: Erial Tompkins, “The Crazy Ones – Building a Better Comedy”
Video Game Writing: Neil Druckmann, “The Last of Us”
Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement: Paul Mazursky
Evelyn F. Burkey Award for Career Achievement: James Schamus
Valentine Davies Award: Sam Simon

ASC AWARDS (Click here for the complete list of nominees)
Best Cinematography in a Theatrical Release: Emmanuel Lubezki, “Gravity”
ASC Spotlight Award (for International and Festival Features): Ryszard Lenczewski and Lukasz Zal, “Ida”
Television Film or Miniseries: Jeremy Benning, “Killing Lincoln”
One-Hour Episodic Series: Jonathan Freeman, “Game of Thrones” (“Valar Dohaeris”)
Half-Hour Episodic Series: Blake McClure, “Drunk History” (“Detroit”)
ASC International Award: Eduardo Serra
Bud Stone Award of Distinction: Beverly Wood
Career Achievement in Television: Richard Rawlings, Jr.
ASC Board of Governors Award: John Wells
Lifetime Achievement Award: Dean Cundey

ANNIE AWARDS (Click here for the complete list of nominees)
Best Animated Feature: “Frozen”
Best Animated Special Production: “Chipotle Scarecrow”
Best Animated Short Subject: “Get A Horse!”
Best Animated TV/Broadcast Commercial: “Despicable Me 2 – Cinemark”
Best General Audience Animated TV/Broadcast Production For Preschool Children: “Disney Sofia the First”
Best Animated TV/Broadcast Production For Children’s Audience: “Adventure Time”
Best General Audience Animated TV/Broadcast Production: “Futurama”
Best Animated Video Game: “The Last of Us”
Best Student Film: “Wedding Cake”

Individual Achievement Categories:
Animated Effects in an Animated Production: “The Croods”
Animated Effects in a Live Action Production: “Pacific Rim”
Character Animation in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production: “Toy Story OF TERROR!”
Character Animation in an Animated Feature Production: “The Croods”
Character Animation in a Live Action Production: “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” – Gollum
Character Design in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production: “Disney Mickey Mouse”
Character Design in an Animated Feature Production: “The Croods”
Directing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production: “Toy Story OF TERROR!” (Angus MacLane)
Directing in an Animated Feature Production: “Frozen” (Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee)
Music in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production: “Disney Mickey Mouse”
Music in an Animated Feature Production: “Frozen” (Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez, Christophe Beck)
Production Design in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production: “The Legend of Korra”
Production Design in an Animated Feature Production: “Frozen”
Storyboarding in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production: “Toy Story of TERROR!”
Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production: “Monsters University”
Voice Acting in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production: “Adventure Time” (Tom Kenny)
Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production: “Frozen” (Josh Gad)
Writing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production: “Futurama”
Writing in an Animated Feature Production: “The Wind Rises”
Editorial in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production: “Disney Mickey Mouse”
Editorial in an Animated Feature Production: “Monsters University”

Juried Awards:
Winsor McCay Award: Katsuhiro Otomo, Steven Spielberg & Phil Tippett
June Foray Award: Alice Davis
Certificate of Merit: “I Know That Voice” (Documentary)
Ub Iwerks Award: Dragonframe
Special Achievement Award: Creative Talent Network Animation eXpo