Title: Elite Squad: The Enemy Within Director: Jose Padilha Starring: Wagner Moura, Irandhir Santos, Andre Ramiro, Pedro Van Held, Maria Ribiero, Sandro Rocha, Milhem Cortaz, Andre Mattos, Seu Jorge A sprawling tale of power, sleaze and ambition in the vein of “City of God,” ”The Departed,” “Infernal Affairs” and “The Wire,” writer-director Jose Padilha’s “Elite Squad: The Enemy Within” is a howling, labyrinthine lament against the brawn and fraudulent self-protection of entrenched institutions that could and perhaps should well find a welcome audience amongst #OccupyWallStreet cineastes. Brazil’s official Academy Award Best Foreign Language Film submission, the movie — which is set in Rio de Janeiro and unfolds at the intersection of drugs, crime and high-level governmental corruption —…

Don Cheadle first garnered a lot of mainstream attention with his performance opposite Denzel Washington in “Devil In a Blue Dress”, for which he was awarded the Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s Best Supporting Actor prize. Since then, of course, he’s appeared in a wide variety of mainstream and independent films, earning a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for the searing ”Hotel Rwanda”, and further burnishing his sociopolitical credentials as one of the producers of the Oscar-winning “Crash”, which he was instrumental in helping get made. Heck, he was even nominated for a Grammy Award in 2004, for his narration/dramatization of the Walter Mosley novel “Fear Itself”. In his new film, writer-director John…

Jeff Bridges, who has been starring in movies for the past four decades, was finally and rightfully recognized with an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Otis ‘Bad’ Blake, a drunken country singer seeking redemption, in ‘Crazy Heart.’ After being nominated for Oscars four times before, for the movies ‘The Last Picture Show,’ ‘Thunderbolt and Lightfoot,’ ‘Starman’ and ‘The Contender,’ Bridges was seen as the front-runner in the Best Actor category this year. He set the precedent by winning the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards. Bridges also had the best chance of winning because he was up against two actors who have already won Oscars:…

The 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, held at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood on March 7, made history several times, featuring several firsts. Not only was it the first ceremony to feature two hosts, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, since 1987, ten movies were also nominated for best picture for the first time since 1943, when ‘Casablanca’ took home the trophy. But the most memorable moment of the night was Kathryn Bigelow’s win for best director for her Iraq war drama ‘The Hurt Locker,’ making her the first woman to win the award. This was the first year to also feature an ex-husband and wife competing against each other in the…

Here’s the complete Academy Awards nominations for 2010. Best Picture: The Hurt Locker Best Director, The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow Best Actress: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart Best Supporting Actress: Mo’nique, Precious Art Direction, Avatar Cinematography, Avatar Costume Design, The Young Victoria – Sandy Powell Best Supporting Actor, Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds Documentary Short, Music by Prudence Animated Film, Up Film Editing, The Hurt Locker – Bob Murawski and Chris Innis Foreign Film, The Secret in Their Eyes Makeup, Star Trek Music (Original Score), Up Music (Original Song), Crazy Heart – “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” Sound Editing, The Hurt Locker –…

The producers for this year’s Academy Awards have a new idea on how to keep the ceremony shorter and keep the audience interested in what the winners have to say during their acceptance speeches, according to Reuters. They suggested at this year’s annual Oscar nominees luncheon in Beverly Hills that the winners give two speeches to cut out the long thank you-filled speeches during the televised ceremony. To keep the televised speeches down to their 45-second allotted time slots, Oscar co-producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman suggested that onstage, the winners tell what the award means to them. The second speech, given backstage, will allow the winners to say thank…

Here’s the complete Academy Awards nominations for 2010. Best Picture: Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds Precious, A Serious Man, Up, Up in the Air Best Actress: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side, Helen Mirren, The Last Station, Carey Mulligan, An Education, Gabourey Sidibe, Precious, Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart, George Clooney, Up in the Air, Colin Firth, A Single Man, Morgan Freeman, Invictus, Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, Nine, Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart, Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air, Mo’nique, Precious Best Supporting Actor: Matt Damon,…

Nominees for Academy Awards were announced this morning, among them “The Dark Knight” and “Milk” with eight each. Actors such as Mickey Rourke (“The Wrestler”) and Richard Jenkins (“The Visitor”) are up for Actor In A Leading Role, with other actors and actresses nominated for their films this past year including the late Heath Ledger, Josh Brolin, Anne Hathaway, and Kate Winslet. Films up for Best Picture include “Slumdog Millionaire”, “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button”, “The Reader”, “Milk”, and “Frost/Nixon”. Also to note, “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” starring Ron Perlman and Doug Jones (Carnies, Pan’s Labyrinth) was nominated for Achievement in Makeup. Performance by an actor in a…

Variety.com is reporting that Robert Mulligan, an Academy Award-nominated film and television director, passed away on December 20th. He was 83. Born August 23, 1925 in the Bronx, NY, Mulligan is best known as the director of the film version of “To Kill A Mockingbird” starring Gregory Peck in 1962. Based on the 1960 novel of the same name by author Harper Lee, the movie is about the racial tensions surrounding the trial of a black man in a small Southern town, largely told through the eyes of a young child. Mulligan also directed actress 1960′s “Rat Race”, the thriller “The Other” in 1972, and Reese Witherspoon’s first film “The…

Here’s a complete list of Academy Awards 2007 Nominations from Oscars.com. Actor in Leading Role: George Clooney – Michael Clayton Daniel Day-Lewis – There Will Be Blood Johnny Depp – Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Tommy Lee Jones – In the Valley of Elah Viggo Mortensen – Eastern Promises Actress in a Leading Role: Cate Blanchett – Elizabeth: The Golden Age Julie Christie – Away From Her Julie Christie – Away From Her Laura Linney – The Savages Ellen Page – Juno Best Director: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Juno Michael Clayton No Country for Old Men There Will Be Blood Best Picture: Atonement Juno Michael…