Once Actress Markéta Irglová's Wonderful Oscar Acceptance Speech

During the Oscars I was truly moved by seeing host Jon Stewert bring Markéta Irglová back out after she had been ushered off before giving her acceptance speech. Markéta and Glen Hansard won the Oscar for Original Song for "Falling Slowly" from Once, the one and only category that the film was nominated in, and although Glen gave his speech, Markéta was ushered off stage before she could even begin to say anything. Thankfully Stewart brought her back after the commercial break and she delivered her unforgettable speech. Not only did the song (and film) certainly deserve the award, but it was a great relief to see it win, especially with Enchanted nominated three times in the same category. Her speech that she did end up giving was truly incredible and it is with great pleasure that I share it with all of you below.

2008 Academy Awards Winners: No Country for Old Men Wins!

Yet another Academy Awards has come and gone and the winners decided! This year the Academy chose No Country for Old Men as the big winner, taking home Best Picture, Best Directors, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor, for a total of four Oscars. The first big upset - The Golden Compass for visual effects?! What an upset! What a travesty! And Bourne Ultimatum, a movie I quite liked, stole all the technical awards including both sound awards and the editing award. But Once winning Best Original Song and Diablo Cody winning Best Original Screenplay were both amazing awards. A fairly great year for the Oscars, although not extraordinary, unless you loved No Country for Old Men. We encourage you to chime in with your opinion below.

PICTURE:

No Country for Old Men

DIRECTOR:

Joel & Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men

ACTOR:

Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood

ACTRESS:

Marion Cotillard - La Vie en Rose

Read on for the complete list of winners from this year's 80th Annual Academy Awards!

Independent Spirit Awards Winners!

The Independent Spirit Awards are an annual award given in the name of independent film, featuring those little indies which deserve the honor and recognition that they won't be receiving at the Oscars. The winners were announced today, a mere 24 hours before the Oscars, and deserve some extra special honor and recognition here on FS.net. All of the films listed below are some of the best you'll find all year, the winners being especially fantastic. Make sure you give some of these a chance, or if you already have, then make sure to tell your friends all about the winners listed below, because you won't want to miss them.

Full Online Community Oscar Predictions Chart!

The 80th Annual Academy Awards finally arrive tomorrow, Sunday, February 24th, and that means almost everyone is thinking about Oscars this weekend. Our friends over at Film School Rejects have compiled a complete Online Community Oscar Predictions Chart that features predictions from 10 movie websites, including both of FS.net's submissions (both Ken's and Alex's). While there isn't exactly a physical prize, endless respect and bragging rights are at stake, and those are of the utmost importance amongst us online folk. This chart is one of the coolest things I've seen put together in a while, so definitely check it out as we lead up to the final ceremony tomorrow night.

Ken's 2008 Oscar Predictions

With the Oscars arriving this Sunday, it's time to play a little prediction game. As it stands, Alex and I will be dropping off our predictions and a few other sites around the web will be doing the same (check out Alex's here). There's really nothing to win, besides maybe some respect, but that's it. I think I have a pretty good grasp on the winners, and while there isn't any prize, the honor bestowed upon the winner will be remembered all year. The 80th Annual Academy Awards air this Sunday, February 24th, so check back afterwards to see who got the closest.

Alex's 2008 Oscar Predictions

With the Oscars arriving this Sunday, it's time to play a little prediction game. As it stands, Ken and I will be dropping off our predictions and a few other sites around the web will be doing the same (check out Ken's here). There's really nothing to win, besides maybe some respect, but that's it. Personally, I'm a bit less competitive than the rest, and that's because I just want my personal favorites to win and that's it. I'm usually rooting for a particular film even if I know it has no chance in hell, but I still think I've got a fairly good grasp on the winners this year. The 80th Annual Academy Awards air this Sunday, February 24th, so check back afterwards to see who got the closest.

Once's 'Falling Slowly' Approved as Oscar Nominee

The one-and-only Oscar nomination for the great indie musical Once from 2007 was in the Original Song category for the song "Falling Slowly" (listen to it in this video). A couple of weeks back, after the nominations had been announced, the NY Times ran an article stating that the song "may be ruled ineligible" due to "problems with eligibility requirements." That claim was an absolute travesty, considering "Falling Slowly" deserves the Oscar win more than anything else. Thankfully the NY Times has received an update, and executive committee for the music branch of the Academy has ruled that "the song was eligible and would be on ballots that shipped tomorrow morning." Cheers to that!

Second Annual Sundance Awards and Complete Review List

I tried to leave Park City today, but the powers that be wouldn't let me go! The snow was falling too hard and before long the only place I could go was my brother's condo in Salt Lake City. However, now I have the time I need to put together my comprehensive best of the fest awards and complete list of reviews from the Sundance Film Festival 2008. Although almost every straight drama was quite mediocre this year, there were some surprisingly impressive comedies. I know the five I've chosen below I will NOT forget and they'll all probably end up making it somewhere on my year end favorites list, too. Keep your eye on this list of films, they're guaranteed to be big hits sometime this year.

Directors Guild and Screen Actors Guild Award Winners

It's the last day of Sundance and both the Directors Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild awards were announced today. Each held its ceremony earlier in the day, with the SAG Awards being shown live on TNT/TBS. Overall it was a great year with good choices, but No Country for Old Men really took the prize, winning both the DGA award and numerous SAG awards. If these two awards aren't a sure setup for what we'll soon see at the Oscars on February 24th, then I'm not sure what else is solid proof that both No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood will big the biggest winners this year. Read on for the complete list.

Sundance 2008 Official Winners Announced

The end is near… or is the end here? Either way, the official award winners of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival have been announced. The big winners are Trouble the Water for Grand Jury Prize, Documentary and Frozen River for Grand Jury Prize, Drama, two movies I never saw or heard much buzz about at all. However, The Wackness took the Audience Award prize this year and I am more than happy that it got some awards mention. Another upset was Sleep Dealer, a movie I did not like at all, that won the screenwriting award and technology award. Read on for the complete list of Sundance winners!

80th Academy Awards Nominations Announced

The nominations for the 80th Annual Academy Awards were announced this morning, and without further ado we'll get right down to them. No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood are both tied with 8 nominations a piece, but Michael Clayton and Juno are strong performers as well. Obviously the Academy knows great movies a lot more than that shabby HFPA that runs the Golden Globes. The Oscars will air live on ABC at 5PM (PST) on Sunday, February 24th, 2008 from the Kodak Theatre in LA. The full list of nominees can be found below.

Jaq's Top Films of 2007

What a year it's been…

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes - and ships - and sealing wax -
of cabbages - and kings."

This past year has been a year of such a variety and differentiation amongst the crop of both Hollywood and independent cinema that there really is no way to actually encompass it all. As my first year back on the reviewing circuit, it was a bit overwhelming to catch the diversity the viewing public is being presented with. Granted, like Theodore Sturgeon said, "90% of everything is crud" and the film industry is no exception. So when something rises to the top, it's only fair to note it, to praise it and hope that the people responsible will take notice and endeavor to repeat it.

Golden Globe Winners Announced; Absolute Travesty!

The pitiful Golden Globe Awards just finished their measly 30 minute press conference presentation and I will say it was an absolute travesty! Not only was There Will Be Blood robbed of Best Drama, but Juno did not win a single one of the three categories it was nominated for!! Is this real? Am I dreaming?! This really goes to show how much of a hack organization the HFPA (Hollywood Foreign Press Association) is and how much of a load of crap the Golden Globes truly are. If you're really curious to find out the rest of their terrible choices, you can see the full list below.

Directors Guild Awards Nominations

The nominations for the 60th Annual Directors Guild of America Awards have been announced. These are the awards, like the Screen Actors Guild awards, that truly recognize the most phenomenal achievements in directing as chosen by their peers. No one else knows great directing like directors themselves, and hence this is a true list of the best of the best and probably a majority of the films that will end up being nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. If you haven't seen them yet, these are the must see movies of 2007.

Ken's Worst 12 Movies of 2007!

You can't have a "Best of" list without having the "Worst of" list as well. These films were, in my opinion, the worst films I saw during 2007. Bear in mind that I haven't seen every movie last year so films that would have probably gone on this list like Dead Silence, Are We Done Yet?, and Code Name: The Cleaner won't be on here. I feel that most people would agree with the majority of the films on my list. Although, I know there are a few on here that might upset some. Either way, these are the least enjoyable films I saw all year.

Golden Globes Have Been Cancelled!

Sorry for being a bit late reporting this breaking news, but it's too big to still pass up. Due to the persistence of the Writers Guild and the ongoing writers strike, the 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards have been cancelled! The HFPA (Hollywood Foreign Press Association) has announced that the NBC telecast on January 13th has been cancelled, and instead the winners will be announced via an hour-long press conference (that will be televised). The writers are victorious this time!

Ken's Best and Personal Favorites of 2007

It's that time again! The time when we film critics put together our lists to try and sum up our opinions of the movies from the previous year. This is one of my favorite things to do, especially going into the Golden Globes and Academy Awards. Now is the time when each film begins to really boil down and make its mark in my mind. They are no longer being judged for just their quality as an individual film, but they are also being compared to every film from 2007. I'll admit I haven't seen every movie from last year, so if one of the movies you loved is missing it's possible that I never saw it. However, of the films I did see (which was more this year than ever before in my life) these are the ones that deserve to be mentioned.

SlashFilm's Definitive Top 25 Movies of 2007

As has been mentioned before, the awards season is in full swing and everyone's top ten lists are being published. However, figuring out what the real best of the best is isn't up the Academy or the critics alone, it's also up to the public. That's why Peter at SlashFilm published The Definitive Top 25 Movies of 2007, which calculates the best of the best by using both the IMDb ratings and the Rotten Tomatoes scores. Considering how his calculations were made, I'm going to have to agree with him and say that this truly is the definitive list. It includes consideration from every critic (on Rotten Tomatoes) as well as thousands of voting public on IMDb. So what are the definitive top 25 movies of 2007?

Roger Ebert's Top Ten of 2007

Still one of the most respected and well-known critics around, Roger Ebert is still chuggin' along and reviewing movies. He started in 1967 and although he's still battling with cancer, 40 years later he's still telling us what's good and what's bad with his one thumb. I can't keep saying it, but this is another one of those lists that you've got to take a look at. If you haven't seen Ebert's top ten movies by now, then they should be the ten you make a priority to catch this holiday.

2008 Screen Actors Guild Awards Nominees

The nominees for the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards have been announced. Yet another awards show in the very top tier (which also contains the Golden Globes and Academy Awards) is the Screen Actors Guilds Awards, where the actors themselves choose the best performances from amongst their peers. It might not be the absolute best actor who is chosen (that is always debatable), but having some friends who are classically trained actors, one thing I do know is that actors very harshly critique other actors. Without further ado, here are the nominations.