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We won't know who'll walk away with the top prizes on offer at this year's Screen Actors Guild until Sunday (Jan 27), but there are a few people who might know already as the deadline for the final ballots for this years awards ceremony is today.

At noon (PT) the members of SAG will have their final say in who wins what at the 19th annual awards show at the weekend and it really is anyone's race to take home the top prizes (except for Best Actor, because Daniel Day-Lewis does not lose these awards).

Feel-good Brit-hit The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is the surprise entrant to the Best Picture Category, facing stiff competition from Lincoln, Argo, Les Miserables and Silver Linings Playbook. Meanwhile, Day-Lewis is against Denzel Washington (Flight), Hugh Jackman (Les Mis), Bradley Cooper (SLP) and Oscar-snub John Hawkes (The Sessions), whilst the Actress section looks a little more familiar, with Jessica Chastin (Zero Dark Thirty), Helen Mirren (Hitchcock), Jennifer Lawrence (SLP), Marion Cotillard (Rust and Bone) and Naomi Watts (The Impossible) are battling it out for the top acting prize.

Continue reading: Final Ballots For Screen Actors Guild Awards In Today

Helen Hunt and John Hawkes star in this delicately-handled story of Mark O’Brien (Hawkes) in an iron lung, who – at the age of 38 - decides that he wishes to lose his virginity. Help comes in the form of a sex surrogate (played by Hunt), who starts a series of eight sessions, designed to lead to sex and to Mark losing his virginity. The Sessions is based on a true story and as such, the narrative takes turns that you would not necessarily expect from a scripted drama. The movie is all the richer for it and is all the richer for the stellar performances put in by Hunt, Hawkes and co-star William H Macy.

Many have wondered why The Sessions didn’t feature more in this year’s Oscars list. As it is, Helen Hunt has been nominated for the Actress in a Supporting Role award – a testament to the quality of the acting, for a movie with such unusual subject matter. Our reviewer was impressed by the handling of The Sessions, by breakthrough director Ben Lewin: “Lewin refuses to shy away from any aspect of this story, confronting everything in honest, sometimes uncomfortable ways that are never remotely sentimentalized. It would be easy to drift into syrupy schmaltz with this kind of material, but the script maintains a bracingly sharp wit, and the actors cleverly underplay every scene.” The remarkable thing it seems, is that viewers can identify with all of the characters onscreen, despite the unusual situation in which they are found.

The Sessions is released in UK cinemas today (January 18, 2012). 

Continue reading: The Sessions Review - Helen Hunt And John Hawkes Hailed For Sensitive Performances

Based on the autobiographical writings of journalist and poet Mark O'Brien, The Sessions - starring Helen Hunt and John Hawkes - hits cinemas in the UK today (January 18, 2013) - on the back of universal acclaim from critics. Boasting a score of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, Ben Lewin's drama is ahead of Django Unchained, Lincoln, Life of Pi, Les Miserables and pretty much every other Oscar contender bar Argo (96%) - so why didn't it feature prominently when the nominations were announced this month?

Its lead star Helen Hunt is up for Best Supporting Actress, though there was nothing for the movie itself, or for Hawkes. It was a frontrunner for Best Picture following the film festivals in 2012, though appeared to fall off the radar. Perhaps it's the subject matter that had the Academy looking elsewhere? The Sessions - originally titled The Surrogate - tells the story of a man confined to an iron lung who is determined to lose his virginity, despite being 38 years-old. With the help of his therapists and the guidance of his priest, he sets out to make his dream a reality. Writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert said, "This film rebukes and corrects countless brainless and cheap sex scenes in other movies. It's a reminder that we must be kind to one another." Alex Zane of The Sun said, "It's a brave performance from Hunt, who spends much of the film entirely naked. Both her and Hawkes are brilliant in a movie that is a massively uplifting experience," while CNN.com said, "A very different kind of love story, breaking taboos lightly, with sensitivity and humor." Our very own Rich Cline gave the movie 4 stars, writing, "The most remarkable thing about the film is that we can identify with everyone on screen."

The lack of Oscar recognition will be a bitter blow to Ben Lewin and his team, made no less palatable by the fact Helen Hunt has almost no chance of winning Best Supporting Actress. Anne Hathaway - at odds of 1/25 - will turn up and take the gong come February 26, 2013. 

Continue reading: With Unanimous Praise From Critics, Why Isn't The Sessions Up For More Oscars?

The Golden Globes are one of the biggest film and television awards in the world. Winning an award from them will almost always top the C.V.s of anyone involved in film. 2012 has been one of the best years in film for a long time, with many films being deemed 'instant classics'. Although, of course, that's said every year, with just a quick glance at the calibre of performances, narrative and cinematography this year it's easy to see why it's being said.

2012's nominations were revealed today with few surprises. The favourites during speculation included Argo, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty and The Master, and they haven't failed to impress in the Globes' nominations. Lincoln's set to be a big winner with seven nominations, while Argo has 5 nominations, Zero Dark Thirty has 4 and The Master has 3. All four, except The Master, are also in the running for Best Motion Picture, competing alongside Ang Lee's Life of Pi and Quentin Tarantino's re-envisioning of a slave narrative, Django Unchained. 

Tarantino's film received 5 nominations, which included two in the category for Best Supporting Performance by an Actor, for Christoph Waltz and Leonardo Dicaprio, which proves to us that it's more than worth the watch. Best Director nominations mirrors the Best Motion Picture, and include Ben Affleck (Argo), Stephen Spielberg (Lincoln), Ang Lee (Life of Pi), Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty) and Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained), which is no surprise really. 

Continue reading: The Golden Globes Nominations, No Surprises For A Great Year Of Film

The Sessions, an indie-drama about a paralyzed poet who hires a sex surrogate to lose his virginity, is creating quite a buzz as awards' season approaches. The movie, directed by Ben Lewin and starring Helen Hunt and John Hawkes, hits theaters in the U.S. this weekend and has received rave reviews.

The movie holds a quite stunning 97% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 53 reviews from some of the most revered critics in the business. Writing in the New York Times, Stephen Holden said, "The Sessions is a pleasant shock: a touching, profoundly sex-positive film that equates sex with intimacy, tenderness and emotional connection instead of performance, competition and conquest." Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times praised the movie for tackling its subject matter, writing, "In a country that embraces cinematic violence with such ease but blushingly prefers to keep sex in the shadows or under the sheets, the grown-up approach of "The Sessions" is rare." Bookmakers don't fancy the movie's chances to land Best Picture at the Oscar, though we see the current 14/1 odds as a real steal. As with 'The Artist' last year, word-of-mouth can really enhance a movie's chances heading into the Golden Globes and the Oscars, and the Academy has favoured indie movies in recent years. If you're of the opinion that 'Best Picture' is a bridge-too-far for 'The Sessions', you could do worse than backing Hawkes for Best Actor. He's currently the second favourite (behind Daniel Day Lewis) for the gong, and recently discussed his chances with Just Press Play.com , saying, ".who knows what will happen? The buzz, the talk, in a way makes me nervous to think about it, the Oscar evening, and the events leading up to it. But, it brings more people to the movie and that makes me really happy."

So, why not eschew the latest Paranormal Activity movie this weekend and go see The Sessions?

Fringe director Ben Lewis' newest work, The Sessions has sparked a buzz among film crowds. Not only does it feature some of the top names in Hollywood - Helen Hunt and John Hawkes - but the premise is more than enough to spark moviegoers' interest. The film centers around the relationship between writer and polio survivor Mark O'Brien (John Hawkes) and his sex therapist, played by Helen Hunt. As the storyline unfolds, the relationship between therapist and patient develops into more than a strictly professional affair.

The film is based on a real-life story and deals with some heavy subjects like long-term illness, relationships and intimacy. Somewhat surprisingly, though, The Sessions is marketed as a comedy and Lewis himself says that he aimed to bring humour to something that could have turned into a very depressing story.

"There are always those early moments where the audience kind of gets the cue, "OK you have permission to laugh," Lewis has said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. His own experience with polio and paralysis is bound to bring some realism to the plot, as well as hopefully a few laughs in the right places. Whether or not he succeeded still remains to be seen, but the film has been generating early Oscar buzz. This seems like a very different process from Lewis' previous works, not least of all in terms of the marketing, which has been much heavier for The Sessions, than any of the director's other films. It looks like this may well be the flick which turns Lewis from a fringe filmmaker into a mainstream success.

It's only right that a film about a dog named Sparky being brought back to life by his school-boy owner, firstly, be the creation of king of Halloween Tim Burton, and secondly that it be the first spark of hopefully many to set the BFI Film festival ablaze in filmic glory. Tim Burton's 'Frankenweenie' opened the festival in London today (Oct 10th 2012), not far from where the film was created in the east of the city.

The festival has been running for over fifty years and is a celebration of the world's most creative, inspiring and enjoyable films. Every year the festival is divided into categories, that differ year on year. For 2012 the assemblages are “Love, Laugh, Cult, Thrill and Debate.”

The festival will close with a new version of Charles Dickens' 'Great Expectations', adapted by Mike Newells. There will be a whole host of other premières including 'Hyde Park on Hudson' (a comedy about Franklin D. Roosevelt, starring Bill Murray), Ben Affleck's thriller 'Argo' and 'The Sessions' starring Helen Hunt and John Hawkes.

Continue reading: Frankenweenie Brings The BFI Film Festival 2012 To Life