BY GRACE MCQUADE
Keep the Champagne chilled and ready to pop — along with some popcorn — because movie award season is in full swing.
The Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards got the parties started this month, with more red carpet arrivals and awards to be handed out this season.
Actors will honor fellow actors and select the winners at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards that will air live on Sunday, Jan. 27 at 8 p.m. on sister cable networks TNT and TBS.
Serious movie fans will follow the results of the Producers Guild of America Awards on Jan. 19, the Directors Guild ceremony on Feb. 2, and the Writers Guild Awards on Feb. 17, along with other niche awards bestowed this season.
The BAFTAs, the British Academy of Film and Television’s big night, will air on the BBC Network on Feb. 10, providing a window on how voters sway on the other side of the pond.
Stand-out independent films, including “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” and “If Beale Street Could Talk,” will be applauded at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, airing on IFC on Saturday, Feb. 23 at 5 p.m.
And ABC will air the 91st Academy Awards, the grand finale of toasts to the best in film in 2018, on Sunday, Feb. 24 at 8 p.m., a night that promises laughs and surprises from the first clink of cheers to the last envelope opened.
Will performances in “Mary Poppins Returns” be favored or will the cast of “The Favourite” reign? Will film fans get to see a “beautiful boy” and a “pretty woman” on the red carpet? And in the countdown to the final award, will “A Star is Born” shine, will “Green Book” make it furthest on the road to the Oscars, or will “Vice” rule the night?
As moviegoers continue to see these and more honored films this celebratory season, Hollywood will deliver new cinema goodies this year that feature past and present award winners and nominees.
The following movie releases showcase artists who have received the highest accolades for their most acclaimed film works, offering a gift bag of new and older films that will keep movie lovers entertained long after the award festivities wind down.
January
“The Upside” (Jan. 11; PG-13; comedy/drama): Academy Award nominee Bryan Cranston (“Trumbo”) plays a wealthy man who becomes paralyzed after a hand-gliding accident. He and his executive assistant (Nicole Kidman, Oscar winner for “The Hours” and current award season nominee for “Destroyer” and “Boy Erased”) hire an unlikely caregiver, an unemployed man with a criminal record (Kevin Hart), in this comedy that reveals the surprising things that can happen when two very different worlds collide.
“Glass” (Jan. 18; PG-13; drama/mystery/sci-fi): Oscar-nominated screenwriter and director M. Night Shyamalan (“The Sixth Sense”) brings together the narratives of two of his prior films. A security guard with supernatural abilities (Bruce Willis), first introduced in “Unbreakable” and with a cleverly-timed cameo appearance in “Split,” is now on a full hunt for the “Split” villain (James McEvoy, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominee for “Atonement”), as his shadowy nemesis Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson, Academy Award nominee for “Pulp Fiction”) continues to loom and pull the strings.
“Serenity” (Jan. 25; R; drama/thriller): Academy Award winner Matthew McConaughey (“Dallas Buyer’s Club”) plays a fishing boat captain leading a quiet life until his ex-wife (Anne Hathaway, Oscar winner for “Les Miserables”) tracks him down to help save her from her violent new husband (Jason Clarke), complicating matters with his current love interest (Diane Lane, Academy Award nominee for “Unfaithful”), in this neo-noir thriller by Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated screenwriter Steven Knight.
February
“Cold Pursuit” (Feb. 8; action/drama/thriller): A snowplow driver (Liam Neeson, Academy Award nominee for “Schindler’s List”) lives a tranquil life in a resort town in the Rocky Mountains with his wife (Laura Dern, Oscar nominee for “Rambling Rose” and “Wild”) until he learns that his son has been murdered by a powerful drug lord. Bent on revenge, he uses his hunting skills and killer instinct to bring down the cartel with the help of a local law enforcer (Emmy Rossum).
“Everybody Knows” (Feb. 8; R; crime/mystery/drama/thriller): Academy Award winner Penelope Cruz (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”) plays a Spanish woman living in Buenos Aires who returns to her hometown outside of Madrid with her two children to attend her sister’s wedding. When the eldest daughter is abducted, unexpected events unfold involving a man named Paco (Javier Bardem, Oscar winner for “No Country for Old Men”) in this psychological thriller.
“Alita: Battle Angel” (Feb. 15; action/adventure/sci-fi): Written by Oscar-winner James Cameron (“Titanic”), a young cyborg (Rosa Salazar) embarks on a journey to discover who she really is — a hope for the future or an angel of death — in a futuristic action yarn that also stars Academy Award winners Jennifer Connelly (“A Beautiful Mind), Christoph Waltz (“Inglorious Bastards” and “Django Unchained”), and Mahershala Ali (“Moonlight” and current awards contender for “Green Book.”)
“The Rhythm Section” (Feb. 22; drama/suspense/thriller): After the death of her family in an airplane crash on a flight she was meant to be on, a woman (Blake Lively) discovers the crash wasn’t an accident and seeks to track down those responsible in this spy thriller that also stars Oscar nominee Jude Law (“The Talented Mr. Ripley” and “Cold Mountain”) and Sterling K. Brown.
March
“Captain Marvel” (March 8; action/adventure/sci-fi): Academy Award winner Brie Larson (“Room”) plays an Air Force pilot-turned-superhero who must use her powers when Earth gets caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races. The fantasy adventure also stars previously mentioned Oscar nominees Samuel L. Jackson and Jude Law, as well as four-time Academy Award nominee Annette Bening (“The Grifters,” “American Beauty,” “Being Julia” and “The Kids Are All Right”).
“Gloria Bell” (March 8; drama/romance): Oscar winner Julianne Moore (“Still Alice”), portrays a free-spirited divorcee in her 50s who spends her days as a straight-laced office worker and her nights letting loose at nightclubs around Los Angeles. After meeting a man (John Turturro, Golden Globe and SAG nominee for “Quiz Show”) on a night out, she embarks on an unexpected romance filled with joys and complications.
“Us” (March 15; horror/thriller): Oscar-winning writer and nominated director Jordan Peele (“Get Out” and co-producer of his year’s contender, “BlacKkKlansman”) takes writing and directing credits once again in a story about a couple (Lupita Nyong’o, Academy Award winner for “12 Years a Slave,” and Winston Duke, two actors in another frontrunner this award season, “Black Panther”) who take their kids to a beach house for some peace and quiet that instead turns into a nightmare when uninvited and eerily familiar visitors arrive.
“The Informer” (March 22; crime/drama): Common, winner of the Academy Award for Best Original Song (“Glory” from the film “Selma”) and Oscar nominees Rosamund Pike (“Gone Girl” and current award season nominee for “A Private War”) and Clive Owen (“Closer”), play three crooked FBI handlers who enlist a reformed criminal and former special ops soldier (Joel Kinnaman) to help them infiltrate the Polish mob’s drug trade in New York.
“Where’d You Go, Bernadette?” (March 22; PG-13; comedy/drama): Two-time Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett (“The Aviator” and “Blue Jasmine”) portrays a woman who goes missing right before a family vacation. Her 15-year-old daughter (Emma Nelson) does everything she can to bring her back in this film directed by Oscar-nominated writer and director Richard Linklater (“Boyhood”) that also stars Oscar nominees Kristen Wiig (“Bridesmaids”) and Laurence Fishburne (“What’s Love Got to Do with It”).
“Greyhound” (March 22; drama/war): As the winter film season comes to a close, back-to-back Academy Award winner Tom Hanks (“Philadelphia” and “Forrest Gump”) not only stars in, but has co-written this World War II-set film in which a naval officer is given command of the battleship Greyhound. In addition to the enemy, he must fight his self-doubts and personal demons alongside his wife (Elisabeth Shue, Oscar nominee for “Leaving Las Vegas”).
