The British Academy of Film & Television
Arts awards
THE STATION AGENT for BEST ORIGINAL
SCREENPLAY!
STATION AGENT
writer/director Tom McCarthy charmed the crowd with his acceptance speech. McCarthy
began, “I’m beyond stunned. This movie hasn’t even opened here - It
opens in March!”
The
British Academy boasts over 4,000 members who work in the British film, television and
interactive industries. Their annual awards ceremony is held in London’s
Leicester Square and serves as the English equivalent of the Oscars.
THE STATION
AGENT beat out fellow Best Original Screenplay nominees 21 GRAMS, THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS,
FINDING NEMO & LOST IN TRANSLATION.
THE STATION AGENT and MYSTIC
RIVER top the SAG AWARDS NOMINATIONS!
By ANTHONY BREZNICAN
AP Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- "Mystic River" and
"The Station Agent" collected three Screen Actors Guild nominations Thursday,
including best ensemble cast.
Patricia Clarkson picked up bids for both supporting
actress for playing an angry cancer patient in "Pieces of April" and lead
actress in "The Station Agent" for her portrayal of a lonesome artist.
Peter Dinklage, the diminutive star of "The Station
Agent" (who was more widely seen last year as the bitter storybook author in
"Elf"), received a lead actor bid. He played a misanthropic dwarf who makes
friends despite trying to isolate himself at an old train yard.
Besides best ensemble - the guild's equivalent to a best
picture category - "Mystic River" was recognized for Tim Robbins' supporting
turn as the survivor of childhood sexual abuse who finds himself the suspect of murder and
Sean Penn received a lead actor nomination for playing an ex-con.
Other ensemble contenders: "In America,"
"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" and "Seabiscuit."
Johnny Depp, a surprise Golden Globe nominee last month
for playing a wobbly swashbuckler in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the
Black Pearl," picked up another bid for that role from SAG - a significant boost for
his Oscar chances.
Other big-name stars - Tom Cruise from "The Last
Samurai," Russell Crowe from "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the
World" and Nicole Kidman from "Cold Mountain" - were among those snubbed by
the actors guild.
Besides Depp, Dinklage and Penn, the lead actor
contenders were Bill Murray for "Lost in Translation" and Ben Kingsley for
"House of Sand and Fog."
The lead actress contenders besides Clarkson were Diane
Keaton for "Something's Gotta Give," Naomi Watts for "21 Grams,"
Charlize Theron for her unglamorous portrayal of a serial killer in "Monster"
and 16-year-old Evan Rachel Wood for "thirteen."...
The 10th annual ceremony will take place Feb. 22 in Los
Angeles, to be broadcast on TNT at 8:00 pm ET/PT. The guild's nominations are the last
major awards nominations announcement before the Academy Awards nominations Jan. 27.
THE NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW
honors THE STATION AGENT as one of the year’s best!
The prestigious National Board of Review
declares THE STATION AGENT one of its top 10 films of 2003. Coming in at an amazing
#3, THE STATION AGENT comes after Mystic River (1) and The Last Samurai (2), but before 21
Grams (4), House of Sand and Fog (5), Lost In Translation (6), Cold Mountain (7), In
America (8), Seabiscuit (9), and Master and Commander (10).
Patricia Clarkson wins the Board’s
award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in THE STATION AGENT and Pieces of April.
USA TODAY reports that “The New
York-based board, founded in 1909 and considered the world's longest-standing film
organization, has about 150 members, including writers, historians, filmmakers and
educators. It is famous for kicking off the awards season, which is one month shorter than
usual this year because the Oscars are Feb. 29 instead of the traditional late
March.”
The winners will be honored in a gala
ceremony at Tavern on the Green on January 13th in New York.
THE INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS
announce their nominations.
BRAVO reports, “Hosted annually on
the Saturday before the Oscars, the IFP Independent Spirit Awards is the yin to the
Oscars’ yang – a celebration honoring filmmakers of independent
vision.” Peter Dinklage is nominated for BEST ACTOR. Tom McCarthy is
nominated for BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY. THE STATION AGENT is nominated for the JOHN
CASSAVETES AWARD.
Winners will be unveiled at an Awards
Ceremony on Saturday, February 28th, 2004, in a tent on the beach in Santa
Monica. The ceremony will air live on IFC at 5:00 pm EST and will be rebroadcast on
BRAVO that evening at 10:00 pm EST/PST.
Find out more at:
http://www.bravotv.com/Independent_Spirit_Awards/
NY POST DEMANDS OSCAR FOR PETER
DINKLAGE
GET SHORTY AN OSCAR: BUSY ACTOR STANDS AND
DELIVERS
By RUSSELL SCOTT SMITH
PETER Dinklage is a tolerant guy - just
don't mention "ze plane."
That's just the sort of dopey joke that
used to send the 4-foot- 6 actor into a rage.
"When I was in high school, I used
to punch a lot of doors," says the Morris County, N.J., native. "As a dwarf, it
was hard to have a sense of humor about life."
Dinklage survived that teenage angst to
become one of the most interesting new faces on movie screens this fall.
His sensitive leading-man turn in the
indie comic-drama "The Station Agent" wowed Sundance crowds in January - and
will likely do the same when it opens here Friday.
There's a long Hollywood tradition of
dwarf actors, including the backward-speaking Man from Another Place in "Twin
Peaks" and the recent favorite, Mini-Me.
But Dinklage's portrayal of the lonely
trainspotter Finbar McBride in "The Station Agent" may be filmdom's first
well-rounded dwarf character.
"This is definitely not a
sentimental movie of the week," Dinklage, 34, told The Post. "Finbar is human.
He's flawed."
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
'Station' should be on track for awards
By Martin A. Grove
"Station" story: It's never been easy for
independent films to be discovered by Academy members, but it will be tougher than ever
this year without DVD screeners to help level the awards playing field.
Ironically, some of the films that will suffer most
because Oscar voters won't be able to see them at home and won't have time to see
everything at screenings are those from the MPAA members' own specialized distribution
units. A case in point is Disney's Miramax Films, which has a gem of a small movie in the
comedic drama "The Station Agent," a SenArt Films production written and
directed by Tom McCarthy. It was produced by Mary Jane Skalski, Robert May and Kathryn
Tucker. "Station" is on track for well deserved awards attention, but it's
exactly the kind of film that would really have benefited from being able to put DVDs in
Academy members' hands.
"Station" is the feature film directorial debut
for McCarthy, who's worked for years as an actor in the theater, television and in films.
Among his many credits are "Noises Off" on Broadway, such television series as
"Boston Public," "Ally McBeal" and "The Practice" and such
movies as Meet the Parents" and "The Guru." Clearly, McCarthy's background
as an actor as well as his training at the Yale School of Drama were helpful to him in
assembling and working with "Station's" first-rate cast. Starring are Peter
Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson and Bobby Cannavale, as three unlikely friends who happen to
meet after Dinklage, a dwarf, inherits an abandoned train depot in New Jersey. While
McCarthy got impressive performances from all three principals, Dinklage is particularly
memorable as a man looking for solitude who instead becomes unexpectedly swept up in other
people's lives.
"Station," which goes wider today, opened Oct.
3 at three theaters, averaging a very encouraging $19,262 per run. The film was honored
earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival with the Audience Award for Best Picture
and with a best actress award for Clarkson and a best screenplay award for McCarthy. It
has the potential to achieve recognition on the awards front, but now without DVDs to use
as a marketing tool, Miramax must motivate Academy members and other awards voters to see
it at screenings. Having enjoyed "Station" very much myself, I'd certainly put
it on my list of smaller films that are well worth taking the time and making the effort
to see in this very compressed awards season.
Read the whole article here |
