The Artist and The Descendants were the two big winners at the Golden Globes on Sunday night, taking home the Best Picture Comedy/Musical and Best Picture Drama respectively. Both leading men, Jean Dujardin for The Artist and George Clooney for The Descendants, won Best Actor in their respective categories. To top it off, The Artist also took home Best Original Score.

Christopher Plummer (Beginners) and Octavia Spencer (The Help) continued to solidify their places as the Supporting Actor and Actress front runners, while Martin Scorsese walked away with the Best Director trophy for Hugo.

The Golden Globes did little to clear up the Best Actress race, due largely in part to its separation into Comedy/Musical and Drama categories. Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn) nabbed the Comedy/Musical award, while the Drama trophy went to Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady).

A Separation, Iran’s Best Foreign Language Film nominee, seems to have taken its place at the head of the pack in that category, adding the Golden Globe win to its already lengthy list of accolades, which includes honors from the National Board of Review, the NYFCC, the Independent Spirit Awards, and several other awards and festivals.

I think it is fair to say that The Artist is still the film to place your money on for the Best Picture Oscar, but there is still a lot of time for the momentum to shift elsewhere. Historically, there is a strong correlation between Best Director and Best Picture winners at the Academy Awards, which could bode well for Hugo, if Scorsese continues to snag directing victories. Otherwise, I’m going to keep an eye on The Descendants and The Help to possibly make a move in the coming weeks.

You can check out the complete list of Golden Globe winners and nominees here.

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Michel Hazanavicius’ silent film The Artist was the big winner at Thursday’s Critics’ Choice Awards, taking home Best Picture, Best Director, Best Score, and Best Costume Design. It is definitely safe to say that The Artist is now the film to beat in the Best Picture race.

The Help walked away with three awards: Best Actress (Viola Davis), Best Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer), and Best Acting Ensemble. George Clooney (The Descendants) and Christopher Plummer (Beginners) nabbed Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively. While I’m tempted to say that Plummer’s win solidifies him as that category’s front runner, I’m not willing to write off Albert Brooks (Drive), who was a heavy hitter early on and may continue to pick up wins in the future.

One of the most interesting awards of the night was Best Cinematography. The unorthodox and abstract styling of Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life tied with Steven Spielberg’s conventional epic War Horse. Considering how polarizing The Tree of Life has been this year, especially with its camerawork, it will be very interesting to see how this category continues to play out.

You can check out the full list of winners and nominees here.

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Looks like two major Oscar contenders are vying for similar settings with their upcoming films. George Clooney (The Ides of March) has announced his next directing project will be The Monuments Men, a story about art historians joining the army to recover art stolen by Adolf Hitler. Michel Hazanavicius, director of the Oscar frontrunner The Artist, will next make a film “inspired by” Fred Zinneman’s Oscar-winning 1948 film, The Search. Hit the jump for more info on both projects.

First up, The Monuments Men. The L.A. Times spoke with Clooney, who revealed that he wrote the script with his frequent collaborator and producing partner Grant Heslov and that Clooney plans to direct. Based on Robert Esdel’s 2009 book, Monuments Men tells the real life tale of 11 civilian art experts – among them, the founder of the New York City Ballet, and an employee of the Metropolitan Museum – who never trained for combat, but were tasked with retrieving stolen art from Europe.

“It’s an amazing story, and Grant and I are already thinking about how great the casting can be. There’s also a great love story,” Clooney said. “Hitler was an art fanatic, and he stashed masterpieces everywhere. He hid 27 Rembrants in a coffin.” Sounds like it could be fun, and since he’s never directed a film he hasn’t appeared in, expect the director to step in front of the camera again – if not as the lead, at least in a supporting role.

Hazanavicius’ new prospect is a bit more somber. Eschewing the silent, black and white style of The Artist, The Search will be a drama set in Chechnya. ”In the original film, the story revolved around a young boy who survived a concentration camp,” the director told Variety. “In my film, the focus will be on the special relationship between a woman and a young boy as well.” Hazanavicius has already secured Berenice Bejo, his female star of The Artist, for the lead in The Search, a mother on a quest to find her son. (Locking Bejo was a presumably easy task, considering the two are married in real life.)

What do you think about these projects? Sound off in the comments.

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The National Board of Review has a long history of kicking off the awards season, setting trends and marking initial frontrunners. This year, Martin Scorsese’s 3D adventure Hugo has taken an early lead, much like The Social Network did last year, by being named Best Film by the NBR. Scorsese also won the Best Director award.

The Descendants was another notable winner, snagging Best Actor (George Clooney), Best Supporting Actress (Shailene Woodley) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash), as well as landing a place in the list of the year’s 10 Top Films.

The New York Film Critics Circle got a jump on the NBR this year by releasing its annual awards on Tuesday, but none of the winners match. The NYFCC handed out Best Picture to The Artist, while Brad Pitt grabbed Best Actor for Moneyball and The Tree of Life.

The Help received the Best Ensemble award from the NBR, but was conspicuously absent from all other categories, including the 10 Top Films. The Iron Lady, for which Meryl Streep nabbed the NYFCC’s Best Actress honors, was notably absent from the NBR’s awards, which considered Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin) this year’s Best Actress.

You can see the complete list of the National Board of Review’s awards here, and the NYFCC’s awards here.

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My primary concern heading into The Ides of March was the possibility of the film being a bit too pretentious for its own good. After all, political dramas have a tendency to be stuffy and have a smug sense of self-importance. Thankfully, none of that is found here. Instead, we get a smart, well-executed story highlighted with exceptional performances and Clooney’s sure hand guiding the picture, behind the camera as well as in front of it.

In the same way that Moneyball provided a fresh perspective on a baseball movie, The Ides of March gives a dramatic look at the behind-the-scenes scheming of election films. Though Clooney is primarily known as an actor, this is his fourth feature film as a director; with solid movies like Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Good Night, and Good Luck on his resume, it’s no wonder he’s able to amass such talented casts for his projects. The multi-talented superstar also lends his hand to the screenplay, co-writing with his producing partner Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon (whose play, “Farragut North,” is the source material for this movie). Clooney’s collected persona seems to permeate the film through every frame: the movie itself definitely takes a stand for one side of the political spectrum (Clooney himself is an outspoken Democrat), but The Ides of March is impressive because it has a sense of conviction without condemnation. The ideas presented are not preached but practically stated, and regardless of the audience’s personal political beliefs, anyone can watch this movie without his or her feathers being ruffled too much.

While idealistic political advisor Stephen Meyers (Gosling) masterminds the primary campaign for Democratic candidate Mike Morris (Clooney), the young consultant makes some troubling discoveries about loyalty, compromise, integrity, and the reality of politics. Tempted by his enemies (Paul Giamatti as the rival campaign manager), seduced by an intern (Evan Rachel Wood), tested by his boss (Philip Seymour Hoffman as Morris’ campaign leader), and hounded by a reporter (Marisa Tomei as a journalist for the New York Times), Meyers soon realizes the world of politics isn’t easily traversed without sacrifice.

This film has one of the best casts assembled this year. Everyone does fantastic work and the Oscar nominations are sure to come once awards season rolls around. Thus continues the Year of Our Gosling, 2011: after a stoic role in Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, Ryan Gosling is allowed more opportunities for actual emoting and takes full advantage of them, delivering one of the best performances of the year. He’s terrific as the starry-eyed advisor, a man who honestly believes in the cause he’s fighting for, slowly revealing to the audience his willingness to justify the final result of the election. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti fit right in with their characters, having played variations of them before (see: Giamatti in 2009′s Duplicity). Both actors were wonderful, each bringing an intangible quality that captivates the audience – we hang on their every word. Evan Rachel Wood was outstanding as the young intern who provides a jolt of energy to the story, and from what I’ve seen of her career, this is my favorite performance of hers. Marisa Tomei (Wood’s co-star in Aronofsky’s The Wrestler) also does some good work with a small role.

The look of the film can be a bit stark at times, but there’s some great imagery here. Clooney’s character gives a campaign speech in front of a giant American flag with thousands of people cheering him on while Gosling and Hoffman’s characters argue just behind the flag. On one side, the flag represents hope and progress, and on the other side, it hangs ominously as a weighty reminder of the stakes of every decision the key players make. Every directorial choice in the movie felt calculated (in a good way), and Clooney continues to prove himself as powerful creative force in Hollywood.

The Ides of March is a must-see for audiences who love strong dramatic performances. It’s not as much a great political movie as just simply a great movie, and this could easily end up scoring a nomination for Best Picture. As someone who isn’t heavily invested in politics, I was captivated during the entire film and definitely recommend checking it out. Until next time…

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Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men, Prisoner of Azkaban) began shooting his ambitious sci-fi movie Gravity starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney back in May, and Warner Bros. have now set a release date for November 12, 2012.

Much of the film is devoted to a woman’s struggle to get back to Earth (and her daughter) after her team at a remote space station are decimated by debris from an exploded satellite. George Clooney will play the team leader at the space station, while Bullock will play the female lead. Most of Gravity will just involve her on-screen, so it’ll be interesting to see Bullock back in a sci-fi setting in that type of environment.

Warner Bros. have also set a release date of December 25, 2011 for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close which stars Bullock and Tom Hanks. The Oscar-friendly date will only involve a limited release, but it will open wide January 20, 2012. In the movie Bullock and Hanks play the parents of a brainy nine-year-old who searches for a lock that matches a mysterious key left behind by his father, who died the year before in the North Tower on September 11, 2001. Director Stephen Daldry (The Hours) is a rare filmmaker who has been nominated for a best directing Oscar for every feature he’s made, so put this movie on your awards radar.

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After withdrawing from directing The Wolverine because he couldn’t re-locate to Japan for the lengthy shoot, it was only a matter of time before Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky lined up his next film.

According to Vulture Aronofsky’s next may be a sci-fi film 15 years in the making called Human Nature. George Clooney is apparently attached, and will play a man who is cryogenically frozen and wakes up years later to a world in which humans have become pets of another species.

It’s still early days but producer Akiva Goldsman (I Am Legend) is currently working out the budget, and it could be Aronofsky’s next project.

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Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity initially had a hard time getting off the ground. Angelina Jolie turned down the lead role twice, and talks with Natalie Portman didn’t work out (which on hindsight was probably due to her pregnancy). Luckily Sandra Bullock signed on, but then Robert Downey Jr. had to pull out because of The Avengers, only to be replaced by George Clooney.

Things have been quiet on the project since Clooney’s casting 4 months ago, but producer David Heyman (Harry Potter) recently confirmed that filming will now begin in May in the UK.

From Collider:

I’m doing Gravity with Alfonso Cuaron, which starts the end of May. Which is great. The whole film has been pre-vised and figured out, it’s f**kin’ awesome. I mean, unlike anything you’ve seen in space. It’s just great. He’s a privilege to work with—he’s a real visionary.

…we’re using technology that’s never seen before. This film will be more immersive, I believe, than anything you’ve seen before. You will really feel like you are in space. It will not be an objective view of space, it will be an immersive view of space. And you know as you say, with Children of Men, he loves these long shots. It’s gonna be a really bold, bold film.

Much of the film is devoted to a woman’s struggle to get back to Earth (and her daughter) after her team at a remote space station are decimated by debris from an exploded satellite. George Clooney will play the team leader at the space station, while Bullock will play the female lead. Most of Gravity will just involve her on-screen, so it’ll be interesting to see Bullock back in a sci-fi setting in that type of environment.

Heyman said Gravity wouldn’t be filmed in 3D, but will be converted and released as a 3D film as “you can make the 3D in a post process much more easily than if you were shooting all live-action or sitting in a room.”

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Last month we heard that Robert Downey Jr. had left Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity due to scheduling conflicts. The man has a lot of upcoming projects, including The Avengers and Oz, the Great and Powerful, which meant a trip into space with Sandra Bullock wouldn’t be happening. It is, however, happening for George Clooney who Warner Bros. has brought on-board to replace him.

THR say that Warner Bros. considered scrapping the movie after Downey Jr. bailed (Angelina Jolie had already turned down the role of the female astronaut twice, and efforts to get Natalie Portman didn’t work out) but as Clooney has agreed to star in the movie production will likely begin early next year.

Much of the film, which will be 60% CGI, is devoted to a woman’s struggle to get back to Earth (and her daughter) after her team at a remote space station are decimated by debris from an exploded satellite. George Clooney will play the team leader at the space station who also survives the space disaster, but previous reports mentioned that if Downey took on the role he would only be required for 3 weeks of filming, so the character may not be around a whole lot.

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A few weeks ago Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski officially signed on to direct The Lone Ranger for Disney, with Johnny Depp set to play the characters Native American companion Tonto. There has been no word so far on who will play the title character, but Depp recently revealed a few of his choices, and you may be familiar with them.

From ET:

“There’s so many interesting possibilities out there,” he tells ET. “Brad [Pitt] would be great. [George] Clooney would be great. Don’t know who it’s going to be just yet.”

Johnny, whose maternal grandfather is Cherokee, wants to portray Native American Indians in a different light than traditional Hollywood films. “Native Americans in cinema, over the past however many decades, have been treated somewhat shabbily,” he says to put it mildly. “This one has plans to rectify that.”

I doubt Disney would have a problem with either, considering how much $$$ they stand to make from such a pairing (the majority of which would be from the females, no doubt).

No word on a start date yet, although Depp will be re-teaming with his other director friend Tim Burton next April for Dark Shadows, so it won’t start until the actor his finished work on that.

Here’s the synopsis for the old draft written by Pirates scribes Ted Elliott’s and Terry Rossio’s draft, although new writer Justin Haythe may have re-written it or just started anew:

The Texas Rangers chase down a gang of outlaws led by Butch Cavendish, but the gang ambushes the Rangers, seemingly killing them all. One survivor is found, however, by an American Indian named Tonto, who nurses him back to health. The Ranger, donning a mask and riding a white stallion named Silver, teams up with Tonto to bring the unscrupulous gang and others of that ilk to justice.

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