Anyway, here is what has been happening news-wise the past couple of weeks ... there were a couple of more precursor awards given recently.
One are the British Academy Awards nominations ...
- American Beauty is the flower of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. The organization's judges announced that the film had been nominated for 14 awards, a nod for every eligible category but one.
- The lone category in which Beauty is not named is costume design, but no matter:First-time British director Sam Mendes leads his competition by a comfortable margin.Next is Neil Jordan with 10 nods for The End of the Affair, followed by Anthony Minghella, whose The Talented Mr. Ripley collected seven nominations.
But the tide continues for American Beauty.
It also continued for American Beauty at the Writer's Guild Awards, which are often the best precursor to what will win the writing awards come Oscar night.
Alan Ball, author of the dark suburban satire American Beauty, won a top honor from the Writers Guild of America on Sunday. Ball won for best screenplay based on material written specifically for the screen. American Beauty beat out three scripts written by their directors, Magnolia by Paul Thomas Anderson, The Sixth Sense by M. Night Shyamalan, and Three Kings by David O. Russell.
The other nominee was Being John Malkovich by Charlie Kaufman. Election, written by Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, was the guild's pick for best screenplay based on material previously produced or published for the big screen.
Other nominees in the category were Anthony Minghella, who directed and wrote the screenplay for The Talented Mr. Ripley from the novel by Patricia Highsmith; and director Michael Mann and co-writer Eric Roth for The Insider, based on a magazine article by Marie Brenner.
Also nominated in the adapted category were John Irving for the screenplay based on his novel The Cider House Rules, and Lewis Colick for October Sky, based on the book Rocket Boys, by Homer H. Hickam Jr.
Besides those two precursors, American Beauty won five prizes, including film of the year, at the London Film Critics' Circle awards presented Thursday night. The film's Sam Mendes was named director of the year, Alan Ball won screenwriter of the year and stars Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening were actor and actress of the year.
