The Hollywood Film Awards have announced a few additional recipients, the first being Marion Cotillard who will receive the Hollywood Actress Award for her performance in Rust and Bone and secondly Robert De Niro with the Hollywood Supporting Actor Award for his work in Silver Linings Playbook. The awards gala will take place on October 22.
Helen Mirren is also set to be honored as she will be awarded the European Achievement in World Cinema Award at the European Film Awards in December. [European Film Academy]
Speaking of Mirren, she is set to once again play Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience, a new stage play written by The Queen scribe Peter Morgan with Stephen Daldry directing. The story will follow the aftermath of the death of Princess Diana and detail the monarch’s relationship with British prime ministers. [The Guardian]
Unfortunately, it appears Iran will be boycotting this year’s Foreign Language Oscar race in protest against the recent anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims, which has sparked violence throughout the Middle East. I’m sure you’ll all remember, Asghar Farhadi‘s A Separation was named Best Foreign Language Film only this year. It appears there will be no repeat for the country as the anticipated submission, the family drama A Cube of Sugar from director Reza Mirkarimi is no longer eligible for a nomination. [Los Angeles Times]
Speaking of Foreign Language Contenders, the list is now up to 52 titles as I just added Albania, Estonia, Iceland, Kenya and Vietnam today and several others yesterday. You can browse all 52 films, along with links to their respective IMDb pages, right here.
Finally, this has got to be the most random, non-sensical dissection of Steven Spielberg I’ve seen. This guy at Wired boasts as if he’s going to tread into some interesting territory, but then devolves into the fact he can’t see past Tom Cruise being Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds and somehow this alone means Spielberg lost his sci-fi edge. I’m all for looking into what makes films work and not work, but this seems like a stretch, especially since he seems to be targeting Spielberg beyond just the one film. [via Awards Daily]
