Awards Round-Up: Maggie Gyllenhaal And Terrence Howard To Lead Independent Spirit Pep Rally
· Maggie Gyllenhaal and Terrence Howard are named honory co-chairs of Film Independent's Spirit Awards, as much for their pinchable cheeks and twinkly eyes as for their impressive body of independent film work. [Variety]
· Tom O'Neil is still trying to decipher the Oscar Code (thankfully, this time not from his bed), and comes to the following conclusions: Scorsese will pick up the DGA award, and Best Picture is anyone's to win. Your office pool's a lock! [The Envelope]
· One oddsmaker puts Departed ahead with 5-4 odds, and Sunshine right behind it at 5-2, but it could easily pull ahead, as Academy members looking for some uplift among a depressing field will ultimately prove unable to resist the charms of its suicidal gay uncles and heroin-snorting dead grandpas. [USA Today]
· The Genies (for the uninitiated: Canada's top film award, and no, none of your three wishes will turn it into an Oscar) gives its Claude Jutra Award for best freshman filmmaker to Vancouver's Julia Kwan for Eve and the Fire Horse, and Stephane Lapointe of Montreal for The Secret Life of Happy People. [Variety]
· The Bagger is set adrift by this year's Oscar unpredictablity. Come on, Oscar-prognosticating-monkey, prognosticate for us! [The Carpetbagger]