Oscars 2015 - The Winners

The biggest awards event took place last night in Los Angeles whilst the rest of us were sleeping here in the UK. Yes, the Academy Award winners have been announced and in case you’ve somehow missed it, here is the full list of winners and some of the speeches from the glitzy ceremony.

Best Picture - Birdman

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Best Director - Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman

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Best Actor - Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Best Actress - Julianne Moore, Still Alice

Best Supporting Actor - J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Supporting Actress - Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

Costume Design - Milena Canonero, The Grand Budapest Hotel

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Hair and Make Up - Frances Hannon, Mark Coulier, 
The Grand Budapest Hotel

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Best Foreign Language Film - Ida

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Best Live Action Short - The Phone Call

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Best Documentary Short Subject - 
Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1

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Sound Mixing - Whiplash

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Sound Editing - American Sniper

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Best Visual Effects - Interstellar

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Best Animated Short - Feast

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Best Animated Film - Big Hero 6

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Best Production Design - The Grand Budapest Hotel

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Best Cinematography - Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman

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Film Editing - Tom Cross, Whiplash

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Best Documentary - Citizenfour

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Best Original Song - Glory by Lonnie Lynn (Common) and John Stephens (John Legend), Selma



Best Original Score - Alexandre Desplat, 
The Grand Budapest Hotel

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Best Original Screenplay - Alejandro González Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo, Birdman

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Best Adapted Screenplay - Graham Moore, The Imitation Game





What do make of the 2015 winners?

Who missed out on the top prizes?

Comment below or tweet @TicketStubBlog with your thoughts on the 2015 Oscars.

BAFTA 2015 - The Winners

Image: bbc.co.uk

The BAFTA winners have been announced! Did you agree with the Academy? 

Take a look at the full list of winners below:

BEST FILM

BOYHOOD Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING James Marsh, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

STEPHEN BERESFORD (Writer), DAVID LIVINGSTONE (Producer), Pride

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

IDA Pawel Pawlikowski, Eric Abraham, Piotr Dzieciol, Ewa Puszczynska

DOCUMENTARY

CITIZENFOUR Laura Poitras

ANIMATED FILM

THE LEGO MOVIE Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

DIRECTOR

BOYHOOD Richard Linklater

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Wes Anderson

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Anthony McCarten

LEADING ACTOR

EDDIE REDMAYNE The Theory of Everything

LEADING ACTRESS

JULIANNE MOORE Still Alice

SUPPORTING ACTOR

J.K. SIMMONS Whiplash

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

PATRICIA ARQUETTE Boyhood

ORIGINAL MUSIC

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Alexandre Desplat

CINEMATOGRAPHY

BIRDMAN Emmanuel Lubezki

EDITING

WHIPLASH Tom Cross

PRODUCTION DESIGN

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Adam Stockhausen, Anna Pinnock

COSTUME DESIGN

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Milena Canonero

MAKE UP & HAIR

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Frances Hannon

SOUND

WHIPLASH Thomas Curley, Ben Wilkins, Craig Mann

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

INTERSTELLAR Paul Franklin, Scott Fisher, Andrew Lockley

BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION

THE BIGGER PICTURE Chris Hees, Daisy Jacobs, Jennifer Majka

BRITISH SHORT FILM

BOOGALOO AND GRAHAM Brian J. Falconer, Michael Lennox, Ronan Blaney

THE EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)

JACK O’CONNELL

Comment below or tweet @TicketStubBlog with your thoughts on this year's winners.

Golden Globes 2015 - The Winners

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The first big awards ceremony took place last night - the 2015 Golden Globes. Whilst we were sleeping in the UK, you may have missed the winners and losers. The Globes also give us a glimpse as to what may be in the running for the Academy Awards this year - the nominations of which will be revealed on Thursday.

So who won what? Take a look at the list below:

Best Motion Picture, Drama 

Boyhood

Best Actor, Drama

Eddie Redmayne - The Theory of Everything

Best Actress, Drama

Julianne Moore - Still Alice

Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Actor, Musical or Comedy

Michael Keaton - Birdman

Best Actress, Musical or Comedy

Amy Adams - Big Eyes

Best Animated Feature Film

How to Train Your Dragon 2

Best Foreign Language Film

Leviathan

Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture

J.K. Simmons - Whiplash

Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture

Patricia Arquette - Boyhood

Best Director, Motion Picture

Richard Linklater - Boyhood

Best Screenplay, Motion Picture

Birdman

Best Original Score, Motion Picture

The Theory of Everything

Best Original Song, Motion Picture

Glory - Selma

Do you agree with the winners?

Who will be in the running for the Oscar nominations this week?

Comment below or tweet @TicketStubBlog

2015 BAFTA Nominations

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The awards season is about to kick off! BAFTA have announced their nominations for the 2015 awards this morning. I'm so pleased to see so many outstanding films included - many of which were selected as Film of the Months last year, with The Grand Budapest Hotel winning my Film of the Year (leading with 11 nominations). 

Let's have a look at some of this year's nominees:

Best Film:

Birdman

Boyhood

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

The Theory of Everything

Outstanding British Film

'71

The Imitation Game

Paddington 

Pride

The Theory of Everything

Under The Skin

Best Director

Alejandro G. Iñárritu - Birdman

 Richard Linklater - Boyhood

Wes Anderson - The Grand Budapest Hotel

James Marsh - The Theory of Everything

Damien Chazelle - Whiplash

Best Actor

Benedict Cumberbatch - The Imitation Game

Ralph Fiennes - The Grand Budapest Hotel

Jake Gyllenhaal - Nightcrawler

Michael Keaton - Birdman

Eddie Redmayne - The Theory of Everything

Best Actress

Amy Adams - Big Eyes

Felicity Jones - The Theory of Everything

Julianne Moore - Still Alice

Rosamund Pike - Gone Girl

Reese Witherspoon - Wild

Best Supporting Actor

Edward Norton - Birdman

Ethan Hawke - Boyhood

J.K. Simmons - Whiplash

Mark Ruffalo - Foxcatcher

Steve Carell - Foxcatcher

Best Supporting Actress

Emma Stone - Birdman

Imelda Staunton - Pride

Keira Knightley - The Imitation Game

Patricia Arquette - Boyhood

Rene Russo - Nightcrawler

Best Cinematography

Birdman

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Ida

Interstellar 

Mr. Turner 

For the full listing of awards, take a look at the BAFTA website.

It will be a tough choice for the academy! Who would you pick?

Watch the BAFTAs on Sunday 8th February, BBC One.

Film of the Year 2014

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Firstly, I'm going to say sorry for the lack of posts during December - it was a busy month and blogging took a massive back seat which is not how I wanted to end a fantastic year on Ticket Stub. To make up for this, I'm starting 2015 with the Film of the Year for 2014! I will also combine a brief December Film of the Month to this post too.

So let's have a very brief look back at last month's films. This final month of the year was actually pretty disappointing for movie-going. I only managed to see two films during December, and didn't get the chance to see the biggest film The Hobbit! I know, this is very poor. (Don't worry, it will be in the January 2015 round up).

As usual here is the rating system:

* = Poor. Why did I even bother?!

** = OK. Could have done better.

*** = Good. Recommended though don’t feel bad you don’t get to see this one.

**** = Excellent. Not quite perfect but highly recommended.

***** = Masterpiece. You’d be a fool not to see this film.

All titles to films link to their respective IMDB pages so you can discover more about the plot, cast and crew.

Dumb and Dumber To

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The dumbest duo are back in a not-so-eagerly awaited sequel. Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels look like they had fun making this themselves, but is it funny for the rest of us? Not so much. If you're a fan of the first film (really?!), then you'll probably enjoy this. For the majority though, there is no need to see it.

Rating: *

Big Eyes

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Tim Burton unexpectedly directs this movie starring Christoph Waltz and the brilliant Amy Adams. The story is exciting and it is actually rather refreshing to not have Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter starring in yet another Burton picture. Adams is excellent and Waltz plays the creepy crook very well. A great story that I would certainly recommend.

Rating: ***

Therefore, December Film of the Month is:

Big Eyes

Watch the trailer here:

Now to the main event - 

Ticket Stub's Film of the Year 2014. 

Let's look at the nominations:

Click on the links above to read each review in full.

January - 12 Years a Slave

February - Dallas Buyers Club

March - The Grand Budapest Hotel

April - Divergent

May - X Men: Days of Future Past

June - The Fault in Our Stars

July - Boyhood

August - Guardians of the Galaxy

September - Night Will Fall

October - Gone Girl

November - The Imitation Game

December - Big Eyes

There have been plenty of outstanding films throughout 2014 that it's genuinely hard to just pick one.
However, one must be crowned the winner so here are the top three:

Third Place - Boyhood



Second Place - 12 Years a Slave




First Place - The Grand Budapest Hotel

Do you agree with my choices?

What was your Film of the Year?

Next up will be a New Year's Resolutions post (much needed I think!)

Here is to 2015!

March Film of the Month

This will be a very short post, before the month of March is over! How quick it has gone!

Click on the film titles to be directed to their IMDB pages. 

Here is the all important rating system:

* = Poor. Why did I even bother?!

** = OK. Could have done better.

*** = Good. Recommended though don’t feel bad you don’t get to see this one.

**** = Excellent. Not quite perfect but highly recommended.

***** = Masterpiece. You’d be a fool not to see this film.

Do you agree with my ratings? Let me know!

The Book Thief 

I think this is another case where, unfortunately, the book looks more appealing than the film. Particularly with the voice-over narration from 'Death' - I'd imagine this is more effective in the book than on screen. Despite this, Emily Watson's performance is great and I think the children do a fine job too. Although I did enjoy this film, it was too sentimental for my liking which meant I wasn't emotionally invested with the characters. With a harsh and dark historical context, the portrayal of the story was rather twee. Not to my taste but not a unpleasant film either. 

Rating: **

                     

Non-Stop

This isn't a film I would normally choose to see but, with the Unlimited card, my friend and I thought we'd see something different. Non-Stop had some suspenseful moments and did keep us guessing. However, I found the dialogue - especially on one of Liam Neeson's big speeches - rather cringe-worthy. The ending is very far-fetched too and certainly disappointing. I was more excited about seeing Dowton Abbey's Lady Mary and the glorious Lupita Nyong'o star in the film than the actual movie itself. What they're doing here in this movie, I have no idea. An ok film, I guess, but not one to see anytime soon...or ever. 

Rating: *

The Grand Budapest Hotel

After seeing and loving the quirky take Wes Anderson took on Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox, I was certainly looking forward to seeing The Grand Budapest Hotel. Featured as a Trailer Tuesday back in January, I am very glad this lived up to and exceeded my expectations. The style of the film from the structure of chapters, the beautifully colourful cinematography and quick paced editing make the film a fabulous spectacle which lives up to the grandure of the hotel and character of Gustave H. (played by a wonderfully camp and witty Ralph Fiennes). It had me giggling throughout and the prison escape sequence is brilliantly executed. Lots of cameos from famous faces may distract, but I enjoyed every single one.

Rating: *****

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Shocking as it may be, but this is the first ever film out of the Marvel Avengers series that I have ever seen. Shocking, I know! So although I am certain that there were many references for which I did not pick up on or understand, I really enjoyed this film. I could easily follow the plot, although I was rather distracted by Chris Evans' muscles (not a bad thing in the slightest. They deserve an extra star.) The effects were awesome and the action sequences were tense and thrilling to watch. I liked the plot's focus on technology paranoia. The film has pushed me to seek out all the other Avenger movies which can only be a good thing. A great film, I think would be even better for the Marvel fans out there.

Rating: ****

Some good, some bad, some ugly...

which will be my March Film of the Month?

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Do you agree or disagree? 

Which films have you seen this month?

Comment below or tweet @TicketStubBlog

Trailer Tuesday: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Image: theguardian.com

The first Trailer Tuesday of 2014 is here, and starting the year off is what looks to be a fantastic new film to hit our cinema screens - The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Directed by Wes Anderson, this is an off beat comedy drama starring Ralph Fiennes as Gustave H. - a famous concierge who befriends the lobby boy Zero Moustafa at the famous European hotel.

The film stars a wealth of recognisable faces including Jude Law, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody. It looks to be a witty and colourful film which will be premiering at the Berlin Film Festival in February.

The Grand Budapest Hotel will be released on March 7th 2014.