A Week In Movies: The Oscars Ends Award Season, Kidman Thrills In Stoker And Hansel & Gretel Is Action Fairy Tale Romp

On Sunday night, the Oscars brought the curtain down on awards season with a ceremony that combined the usual starry glamour with rather a lot of music. And it was nice that one movie didn't sweep the boards this year, with top honours spread between Argo, Life of Pi, Silver Linings Playbook, Lincoln, Django Unchained and Les Miserables. 

The night before the Oscars, Hollywood's A-listers gathered in Los Angeles to celebrate non-studio movies at the Independent Spirit Awards. Jennifer Lawrence won best actress at both ceremonies, and was caught by the paparazzi signing autographs for fans on her way into the Spirits.

Daniel Radcliffe also attended the Spirits on Saturday, a day before performing a surprising song and dance with Joseph Gordon-Levitt during host Seth MacFarlane's Oscar opening number. At the Spirits, he seemed to try to out-do Jennifer Lawrence by not missing a single autograph hunter. He was so focussed on greeting his fans that he ignored the photographers shouting his name, even when one called him "Harry Potter".

And a third star shouted at by paparazzi in the sunshine at the Spirits was Jeremy Renner, who also appeared the following night at the Oscars with his fellow Avengers cast. He has a new film opening this week in the UK, the fairy tale pastiche Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, costarring Gemma Arterton.

Another deranged family is at the centre of the upcoming comedy Family Weekend, about a teenager (High School Musical's Olesya Rulin) who takes her parents (Kristin Chenoweth and Matthew Modine) hostage to teach them a lesson about parenting. The trailer makes it looks like a very sharp and sometimes rather silly black comedy. It opens next month.

Also opening this week in the UK and USA is the twisted family drama Stoker, which stars Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman and Matthew Goode. A love-it-or-hate-it film with strong Hitchcockian overtones, Oldboy director Park Chan-Wook's bold approach to filmmaking is bound to get people talking.

And finally there are likely to be fewer laughs for the family in The Conjuring, a new horror movie from James Wan (Insidious). Based on a true story, it's about a family that moves into an idyllic rural farmhouse that turns out to be home to some sort of demonic force. The trailer alone can give you nightmares! The strong cast includes Patrick Wilson, Lili Taylor and Vera Farmiga, and it opens this summer.

Rich Cline