If the Emmys are the Oscars' paste-eating cousin, we're nearly at a loss for what familial metaphor to apply to last night's People's Choice Awards—perhaps the PCAs are its chain-smoking, lupus-afflicted aunt with an internet gambling problem. Last night's procession of winners offered some unsettling glimpses into the state of current American popular favor (three words: Favorite Group: Nickelback), interrupted occasionally by a truly creepy, cosmetics-sponsored complexion prize. (Congratulations, Sandra Bullock, on your sweet, OLAY Total Effects Award victory!) Favorite Female Movie Star Jennifer Aniston and Favorite Leading Man Vince Vaughn (as opposed to Favorite Male Movie Star Johnny Depp—a not-very-clever way to get two movie stars to show up), recognized for their prescient work in The Break-Up, were both on hand to accept. So was Cameron Diaz, who concluded a rambling acceptance speech on how much she loves her "job" with a lightly-encoded kiss-off to recent dump-in-a-box gifter Justin Timberlake, who appeared live via satellite:

· The Directors Guild of America announced its short list of five nominees, including Martin Scorsese, Bill Condon, Stephen Frears, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, and Little Miss Sunshine collaborators Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, leading us to wonder why we don't see more directing duos willing to evenly split their control-freak impulses. [MSNBC]
· Even publicists have awards! The nominees for the Maxwell Weinberg Award for the year's top publicity campaign include Borat, The Devil Wears Prada, Dreamgirls, Happy Feet, and United 93. World Trade Center's campaign, which voters felt relied too heavily on the solicitation of MySpace friendships and currying favor with Tila Tequila, was passed over for recognition. [Variety]
· The Scripter, an unusual award from the USC libraries that recognizes the achievement of both authors and the screenwriters who transform that source material into successful screen adaptions, have narrowed the field of nominees to the teams responsible for Children of Men, The Devil Wears Prada, The Illusionist, The Last King of Scotland, and Notes on a Scandal. [THR]
· Don't forget: Tomorrow is the deadline to get those Golden Globe ballots in, HFPA members! Oh, and for anyone who cares, the People's Choice Awards are tonight. [The Envelope]

While Academy voters undoubtedly enjoyed watching Sacha Baron Cohen carry out his Borat junket responsibilities entirely in character, inquiring about the sexual availability of the siblings of any reporter willing to point a microphone in his direction and making the occasional straight-faced statement of solidarity with noted "anti-Jew warrior, Melvin Gibson," they probably won't be inclined to write in the name "Borat Sagdiyev" on their Oscar ballots. Realizing that Cohen would need to do some interviews as himself if he's serious about a landing a nomination, his publicists have finally convinced him to doff Borat's trademark gray suit and put aside canned references to his alter ego's proud rapist lineage and take some time to spotlight an actorly transformation so complete that even his bowel movements became prisoners of his process. Reports the LAT's Patrick Goldstein:

· The National Society of Film Critics have a few surprises, including naming Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth as their best picture, and awarding best supporting actor to Mark Wahlberg for The Departed—rendering that creepy thing with eyeballs on his palms crushed for being overlooked once again. [Backstage]
· The Visual Effects Society Awards announced their nominees, with Best Single Visual Effect of the Year category going to sequences from Children of Men, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Poseidon, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Borat's nude wrestling scene, which, suprisingly, was accomplished by placing thousands of mapping nodes all over Sacha Baron Cohen and actor Ken Davitian's naked bodies, then later adding folds of hairy, lifelike manflesh through cutting-edge CGI techniques. [THR]
· The Palm Springs International Film Festival cannily presented an "ensemble" award to the cast of Babel, meaning for the price of one award, they got a Brad Pitt, a Cate Blanchett, and a Rinko Kikuchi and Adriana Barraza thrown in free of charge. [Desert Sun]
· The Online Film Critics Society named United 93 best picture, Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker best actors, and Little Children's Jackie Earle Haley and Little Miss Sunshine's Abigail Breslin rounding out the supporting categories for their pedophile/pageant-princess-pedophile-bait roles. [Variety]
· The National Board of Review will award Deepa Mehta their vaguely named Freedom of Expression Award tomorrow for her film Water. [CBC.ca]

· Rejoice! The results for the first round of the British Academy Film Awards, in which preliminary voting narrows down each category to a mere 15 nominees, have arrived. Look deeply into these scattered tea leaves and you shall surely foretell Oscar future. The Queen and Casino Royale lead the pack with 14 nominations each. [The Envelope]
· Director Bill Condon's Dreamgirls may have been somehow left off the BAFTA's best picture list, but how many of those 15 other directors can say they are the winners of this year's Santa Barbara Intl. Film Festival Montecito Award? None, that's how many! [Variety]
· The Scientific and Technical Academy Awards recognized 15 for their contribution to the technical advances that allowed Johnny Depp to overact opposite a face full of writhing calamari, including FX vets Ray Feeney and Richard Edlund. [Variety]
· Guilds and critics don't always agree, but if you're looking for Oscar predictions, best to ignore the opinions of those four-eyed, snot-nosed stuffed shirts, and stick to what the Hollywood working class has to say. [THR]

· As we mentioned before, the SAG awards nominations announcement pours on the peer-to-peer thespian love, with notable omissions including both Clint Eastwood movies and Jack Nicholson's work in The Departed. On the TV side, recently silenced talk show host Megan Mullally can take a brief break from the tears and nose-blowing knowing her work in Will & Grace's final season was singled out for recognition. [Fox News][Variety]
· Enjoy this photo gallery of SAG's film and TV nominees, suitable for browsing or framing. [The Envelope]
· The Kansas City Film Critics Circle decided on the year's best at their weekly poker game. The winners are: United 93, Forest Whitaker, Helen Mirren, and Paul Greengrass for the Robert Altman Award for Directing, renamed from Best Director this year for the Kansas City native's death. [LJWorld.com]
· "Who's Won What So Far." This Oscar tracker lists every major award and nomination won by the major contenders thus far. This would be better laid out in a chart, which true awards nerds might want to set aside some time to make as a craft project. [AP]

The LAT reports that the Producers Guild has rejected Paramount head Brad Grey's attempt to receive a producing credit* on Warner Bros' The Departed, a movie the former manager was "instrumental" in putting together before taking his current job at the 'Mount, a decision that will probably deny Grey the chance to hedge his Oscar bets by competing against his own studio's Best Picture hopefuls, Dreamgirls and Babel. The Times explains the PGA guidelines that could keep Grey off the podium in the eventuality of a Departed Academy Awards win:

Rather than rely on a method more appropriate for the public's interest level in their event, like scrawling the names of their honorees on a series of Post-It notes, affixing them to the door of the Guild's office, and letting any concerned members of the media wander by at their convenience to discover the identities of this year's lucky thespians, SAG insisted on the needless formality of calling an early morning press conference to announce the nominations for the 13th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. This year's Saggies—considered by the industry to be the leading indicator of who will stand behind a podium on TNT (and TBS! Live!) on the last Sunday in January and gush speeches about how "this award really means the most to me, because it comes from my incredibly talented peers, who know exactly how much hard work goes into this sacred craft of ours"—contain few surprises, recognizing Leonardo DiCaprio for both Blood Diamond and The Departed (though in different categories, avoiding the kind of draining Leo vs. Leo faceoff he'll be subjected to at the Golden Globes), Helen Mirren's year of utter domination over all other cinematic monarchs, and the Dreamgirls ensemble for not setting back their profession by murdering one another off-camera in tragic fits of diva-fueled jealousy. Round-ups of the announcement are here, here, and here, and the full list of winners is here, should you wish to take a moment to recognize the performers you will likely decline to watch claim their statues on basic cable on January 28th.

· The 3000-member Producer's Guild of America named the nominees for its awards, with the producers of Babel, The Departed, Dreamgirls, Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen all nominated for best picture. Unlike the Academy Awards limit of three, their awards have no cap on the number of producer's names that can be submitted under a single title, meaning no movie money person will be left out from the fun of feeling like PGA queen for a day. [Variety]
· The Oscars also have a three name rule for Best Song, meaning Dreamgirls' "Listen"—with four credited songwriters including Beyoncé—wasn't eligible unless one name was dropped; the Academy decided that name will be Beyoncé's, in all probability closing the door on her one Oscar shot, while ensuring her Jennifer Hudson voodoo doll sees another needle. [The Envelope]
· The Oscar nominating ballots went out Tuesday, arriving before most Academy members were even back from vacation, and are due back on January 13, meaning marathon screener viewings will be required. Otherwise, a quick match of DVD shuffle board can always quickly knock a few entries out of contention. [THR]
· The Academy has added a 115-member makeup branch (including hairdressers), where those artists used to be lumped into the all-service "members-at-large" category. That's a tenth of the size of the actor's branch, but still may be enough to swing a Best Picture nomination Big Momma's House 2's way. [Variety]

The NY Times' David "The Carpetbagger" Carr explores the heart-stopping, bowel-loosening effect that yesterday's national day of mourning (and postal service interruption) to recognize former President Gerald Ford's passing had on studio publicists anxious to get their screeners into awards voters' hands on the first work day of the new year, who spent a jittery, mail-free Tuesday contemplating the cruel "purgatory" in which their precious DVDs languished because of the utterly inconvenient death of a former President:

· The Oklahoma Film Critics Circle name United 93 last year's best film, Martin Scorsese best director, and Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker best actress and actor. They stray from the pack with the addition of two unusual categories, "Obviously Worst Film," and "Not So Obviously Worst Film," which go to Basic Instinct 2 and Bobby, respectively. [Oklahomafilm]
· Utah Film Critics Association also award United 93 their best film prize, but opt to give Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón the best director nod for Children of Men. Best actor goes to Sacha Baron Cohen—the only category not to feature a runner-up, proving Cohen had unanimously astounded Utah's tastemaking elite with his Jew- and Gypsy-leery character's picaresque adventures. [Variety]
· The African-American Film Critics Association lavishes their love upon Dreamgirls, naming it best picture, Bill Condon best director, and giving best supporting acting awards to Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson. Forest Whitaker wins best actor, and in the "one of these things is not like the other" slot is Helen Mirren for her work in The Queen. [The Envelope]

· The Chicago Film Critics Association decide upon The Departed as this year's best picture, with Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker taking top acting honors. Congratulations: Through the process of critical concensus repetition alone, you have now been brainwashed into believing those two actors will take home an Oscar. [THR]
· The Florida Film Critics Circle also honor The Departed, Mirren and Whitaker, while the Pauline Kael Breakout Award (sponsored by Clearasil) goes to Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls. [Variety]
· The AFI name their "Moments of Significance" for 2006, a sort of Oscars for Hollywood trends, we guess, recognizing such abstract concepts as "Clint Eastwood - A National Treasure," "The Documentary Speaks To The World," and "YouTube Redefines 'The Tube.'" Sadly, "End to Years-Long Battle for Armrest Dominance Over That Guy Sitting Next To You at the Movies" is one Moment of Significance that has yet to see the light of day. [The Envelope]

· Var's Peter Bart calls out fellow Academy voter Oprah Winfrey for her rule-bending tendency to loudly campaign for her Oscar favorites. An AMPAS spokesman answers Bart's charges about their acceptance of Winfrey's cheerleading by saying, "Shhhh! She's fucking crazy, she'll have us all killed. Let her slobber all over Jennifer Hudson if it makes her happy." [Variety]
· There's something for everyone at this weekend's box office! As long as you want to see Ben Stiller being chased around by animated dinosaur bones, Sylvester Stallone getting beaten up by a guy young enough to be his grandson, or [spoiler alert] Matt Damon getting urinated on while mud-wrestling with naked men. [THR]
Foreign moviegoers declare war on Christmas, staying away from The Nativity Story in the proverbial droves. [Variety]
· Subtitles: Not just for art-house movie nerds anymore. [THR]
Germans moviegoers are expected to ignore Flags of Our Fathers, as they're getting pretty tired of Hollywood reminding them that they lost World War II. [Variety]

In our ongoing effort to bring you the best of year end movie lists and awards—no critics' circle too far or too small!—another round-up:
· Chargers fans also love Clint Eastwood, as Letters From Iwo Jima is awarded best picture and Eastwood best director from the San Diego Film Critics Society. And while Helen Mirren once again gets top actress honors (her certificate, suitable for framing, is in the mail), they then proceed to throw several curveballs in the other acting categories, including Lili Taylor as best supporting actress for Factotum, Ray Winstone as best supporting actor for The Proposition, and Ken Takakura as best actor for his work in Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles. From the title alone, that sounds to have been a lot more demanding a role than Mirren's, which mainly required her to sit around in a palace, sip tea, and act bitchy. [Variety]
· The Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards gave United 93 best picture, Mirren best actress, Forest Whitaker best actor, and Little Miss Sunshine best screenplay, proving stretching out Blind Melon's "No Rain" video into 100 minutes of indie movie quirk clichés was an idea whose time had come. [OscarWatch]
· indieWIRE's first annual Critics Poll—a descendant of the Village Voice poll— asked 107 North American film critics to assess the year's best, with a special eye to movies that may have been overlooked. Number One, and far ahead of the pack, is Cristi Puiu's The Death of Mr. Lazarescu. [IndieWire.com]
· The Onion A.V. Club gives their top honor to Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men, with special mentions to the underrated Brick (#4), and Half Nelson (#6), which succeeds in its inner-city high school inspirational teacher story despite a lack of a Coolio song on the soundtrack. [AV Club]

DGA ScreenerGate rages on! The Guild reverses its shocking no-screeners policy reversal by banning the DVDs for this award season, then promising there will be no awards campaigner mindfucking next year, when they'll be allowed. "The most awkward and disrespectful awards snafu of the year!" says Outraged Anonymous Exec of The Undisclosed Studio Review-Journal. [Variety]
Drumroll, please: The last Harry Potter book will be named Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Titillating rumor that we just made up: Harry and Hermione will finally get it on, as will Ron and the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. [THR]
Rocky Balboa picks up $6.2 million on its first day of release, prompting MGM to rush out ads touting the film as the "Number One Movie In America On Wednesday, December 20th." [Variety]
NY circuit court judges, network lawyers, and the FCC carry on a lively debate about when people can say "fuck" and "shit" on live television. [THR]
· While Americans largely ignored Clint Eastwood's English-language World War II movie, the Japanese seem to really love the one he made in their tongue. [Variety]

Because it's never too late to start your Oscar pool prognosticating—especially with the all-important Canadian take to factor in—we offer another year-end awards season round-up:
· The Toronto Film Critics Association chooses to give its big prize to the woman who still appears on much of their local, bird-covered currency, The Queen, with Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen (who plays Tony Blair) and screenwriter Peter Morgan also getting nods. Just to show they aren't entirely Commonwealth monarchist snobs, Sacha Baron Cohen wins best actor for his teabagging-related work in Borat. [Variety]
· The Chicago Film Critics Association Awards announced their nominees, with Babel leading the pack at nine (including one for Brad Pitt, bringing us one step closer to those magic words, "Oscar Winner Mr. Angelina Jolie"), with The Departed and The Queen pulling in six apiece. Little Miss Sunshine and United 93 round out the best picture category. [Chicago Tribune]
· What would happen if Oscar campaigning took a cue from politics and went negative? Probably full-page Variety ads reading, "It's simple: You're either a racist who approves of gay cowboy marriage, or you think Crash was this year's Best Picture. The choice is yours." [The Envelope]

Paramount/Dreamworks' "roadshow" opening of Dreamgirls was a big success, but will it translate to strong numbers as the film expands to 800 screens, when the studios will need to attract audiences outside of the Gays who jumped at the chance to pay $25 a ticket for a preview during the limited run? [Variety]
Who will star in CBS's untitled legal drama pilot as a quirky, sassy public defender who, despite her quirk and sass, has been hardened by her efforts to make it in a man's world? If you guessed the quirky-n-sassy-yet-hardened Janeane Garofalo, give yourself five dollars. [THR]
Awards Screeners Shocker! The DGA does-repeat, DOES! We know!—allow screeners to be sent out to its members! In a reversal of an apparently nonexistent ban on FYC DVDs, the Guild clarifies its policy on the matter (details too boring to repeat here), leading to much gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair from awards campaigners angry they weren't informed earlier. [Variety]
...And DreamWorks is the first studio to exploit the DGA's new/old policy on screeners for the purpose of pimping Dreamgirls' Bill Condon. See above re: teeth-gnashing and hair-tearing. [THR]
Either it's just a weird typo, or the Reporter was so taken aback that NCIS was the most watched show of the week in primetime that it took eleven question marks to express its disbelief. [THR]

Like the family Golden Retriever plopping your favorite pair of slippers by your feet, we bring you yet another year-end critics' list round-up:
· We like The Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association's style: No confusing nomination procedures rewarding regular and "Texan" film—just a straightforward list of winners. United 93 takes another best film honor, as United Airlines executives start to feel more and more conflicted over the scads of free integrated branding they'll probably enjoy at this year's Oscars ceremony. Helen Mirren, Forest Whitaker, Martin Scorsese round out the big categories. [Variety]
· The AP reviewers list their top 10 films of 2006: The Queen, United 93, and Little Miss Sunshine make both lists, while Snakes on a Plane makes neither. Luckily, Stephen King compiles his own list for Entertainment Weekly, so the movie that you either wanted to see, or for the most part didn't, doesn't come away completely empty-handed. [AP, EW]
· The Queen's director Stephen Frears, writer Peter Morgan, producer Andy Harries and star Helen Mirren have all been invited by the real Queen's secretary for lunch at Buckingham Palace, where they'll either be subjected to Her Majesty's glowing words for their honest yet humanizing depiction of the monarch during a time of national crisis, or never be heard from again. [Time Out]

On Thursday night, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger met with Jewish community leaders from all over California to celebrate Hanukkah at the State Capitol, and while photographs from the event seem to show Schwarzenegger generally enjoying himself, things got momentarily tense when he approached the Hollywood contingent and tried to do a little lobbying for a close, yet misunderstood, pal who recently may have said some terrible things he really didn't mean. Unfortunately, even after joining some of his guests in a dance to show good faith, the Governor was politely but firmly told the best they could do for his buddy's "bloody little movie" was an Oscar nomination in a technical category or two, and then only if the friend finally started showing up to some of those healing meetings he promised back in the summer.

· The International Press Academy (sort of like the HFPA, but even more international and obscure) presented their Satellite Awards in the Beverly Hills le Méridien ballroom Sunday. Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker get best acting nods for a drama, while Bill Condon and Clint Eastwood (for Flags) tie for best director, in a contest with a category and winner for just about everything. (A Lifetime movie picked up multiple awards.) [Variety]
· The Black Reel Awards give the most nominations to—surprise!—Dreamgirls, with nods also to Pursuit of Happyness, Inside Man, Akeelah and the Bee, Idelwild and more. Shockingly, Big Momma's House 2 is completely shut out, not even recognized for a Special Makeup Award For Excellence in Fat-Suit Drag Achievement. [BlackReelAwards]
· The London Film Critics' Circle has a massive list of nominees divided into regular and "British film" categories. British actors (Helen Mirren, Judi Dench) are nominated in both acting categories, yet Kate Winslet gets a Best British Actress nomination for Little Children, but doesn't make the Best Actress cut. To make matters more confusing, some 2005 films which presumably got later releases in the U.K.—Capote, The Squid and the Whale—got multiple nominations. [shadowsonthewall.co.uk]