Nominated in numerous awards ceremonies so far but taking home comparatively few prizes, The Help finally won big at the Screen Actors' Guild Awards last night. It won Best Ensemble Cast, with Viola Davis taking Best Actress and Octavia Spencer Best Supporting Actress. "I'm going to dedicate this to the downtrodden, the underserved, the underprivileged, the overtaxed, whether emotionally, physically or financially," said Spencer, revealing that her take on the film is...

The hotly tipped Beasts Of The Southern Wild, directed by Benh Zeitlin took home the US dramatic competition prize at Sundance Film Festival. Eugene Jarecki's documentary about drugs and punishment, The House That I Live In was named US documentary winner. The film, which stars non-professionals Quvenzhané Wallis and Dwight Henry, tells the bold and beautiful story of a dad and daughter scratching a living in the wilds of Louisiana. With a mythical sweep and cinematography from Brit Ben Richardson, which also merited an award, the film was a...

If you thought gender bias in Hollywood was a thing of the past, the laest figures released by the Celluloid Ceiling project at San Diego State University make shocking reading. Based on an analysis of the 250 highest grossing films released in the US in 2011, they show women dramatically under-represented in direction, production, cinematography and writing.

Although women make up slightly over half of cinema audiences, the report shows that what is being watched is overwhelmingly created by men. Consequently women's voices...

Last night the 18th annual Slamdance festival concluded by presenting Audience and Grand Jury awards to the best narrative and documentary films showcased at this year's event. The Audience Awards went to Getting Up, by Caskey Ebeling, for best documentary and Bindlestiffs, by Andrew Edison, for best feature narrative. In the Grand Jury Awards, winners came in the form of Keith Miller's Welcome To Pine Hill, which received the Grand Jury Sparky Award for Feature Narrative, and Axel Ranisc's...

"I have never felt that being gay has worked against me but the finding in Equity's own survey that just under half of all gay performers are not out to their agent in the UK is worrying," said Equity president Malcolm Sinclair today, commenting on a study commissioned by the actors' union. "But then work is scarce and, whether sexuality is a barrier or not, people may just err on the side of caution."

Broadly positive, the results of the study suggest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender actors have come a...

The goNorth festival is an important showcase for creative talent from the north of Scotland and across Europe. This year it plans to do more with film than ever before. We spoke to screen and broadcast director Amanda Millen to find out more about the changes and just what attendees can expect.

“We have a mandate to develop the independent broadcast production sector, to set up trade groups and develop economic strategy,” explains Amanda, talking about the organisation behind it all, ScreenHI. “We want to encourage creative work but we also want to make sure...

Its not often that an unmade film can get revived and given a world premiere, least of all when its script was abandoned 50 years ago. But that is in a sense what has happened this year with The Day Off - a unfilmed script written by Steptoe And Son creator team Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, and premiered at this years London Comedy Film Festival via a live cast reading to an audience. Written with the intention of starring comedy legend Tony Hancock in 1961 (Galton and Simpson having worked with him before on the film The Rebel in 1961, and earlier in radio...

Mankind's relationship to animals and our more animalistic tendencies dominated my fifth day at Sundance, from the simple observation of man and beast in close proximity in Bestiaire, to our desire to run with the pack in My Brother The Devil and the use of our baser instincts as a means to an end in Nobody Walks. Still harbouring some flu beasties of my own, it made me feel a whole lot better knowing I'd dragged myself out of bed for something good - Bestiaire.

It was preceded by a short...

Day four at Sundance brought chills, multiplying and, sadly, not just on the screen. With the flu having a party round at my place, it crimped my style a bit. I did manage to dose myself up long enough, however, to chat to Mads Brugger about his documentary The Ambassador - which exposes corruption in Africa.

We'll bring you the full interview in a couple of weeks, but regarding the genesis of the project, he said: "I was interested in making a genre-bending,...

Unusual care-givers were the name of the game of Day Three of Sundance - from a mechanical assistant in Robot And Frank, to an offbeat and fiercely touching dad and daughter relationship in Beasts Of The Southern Wild, and an unlikely mentorship between a Vegas bookie and a former lap-dancer in Lay The Favourite.

All have their merits but I was simply blown away by the bravery, beauty and overwhelming freshness of Beasts Of The Southern Wild. It is the remarkably accomplished directorial...

Documentary has enjoyed a deserved resurgence in recent years but as the market has thrived, there has been another interesting metamorphosis taking place, as filmmakers have begun to use the palette afforded them by the big rather than just small screen to examine the form of documentary itself and push the envelope. Last year Clio Barnard brought new artistic sensibilities to the genre and questioned the nature of memory and veracity in documentation through The...

An inspired mash-up of Cloverfield, Carrie and a million superhero origin tales, Josh Trank's debut manages to impress through nifty direction on a relatively low budget, slow-burning performances from promising newcomers and a thoughtful, perceptive script by Max (son of John) Landis that refreshingly takes the perspective of the potential villain. Putting aside any notion of nepotism and the found-footage fad's current bankability, it's heartening to see Hollywood get...

The lastest from Intacto director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is big on atmosphere but light on plot. Exploring the realm where nightmares crash into reality, it’s a two-track story in English and Spanish - one half following little boy Juan (Izan Corchero) and his night terrors in Spain and the second tracking a London suburban dad (Clive Owen), whose 11-year-old daughter Mia (Ella Purnell) becomes petrified about what is lurking in the corner of her bedroom at night....

Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) is a Vernian. He believes that the works of Jules Verne are ostensibly based on real places and events. He receives an encoded message from Alexander his long lost grandfather (Michael Caine). With the help of his stepfather Hank (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) and copies of Gulliver's Travels, Treasure Island and The Mysterious Island they work out Alexander's location. They then set out to find him and on the way enlist...

"What are we going to do when we leave?" asks Anna (Felicity Jones) near the beginning of Drake Doremus' Like Crazy.

"You mean permanently leave?" replies Jacob (Anton Yelchin), to which Anna quips, "Yeah, when we depart – from this planet."

It is a telling scene. On the one hand, it captures something of the initial goofiness of Anna, whose amatory overture to Jacob was a lengthy handwritten essay left on his car's windshield with the post script: "Please don't think I'm a...

Enjoyment of Man On A Ledge largely depends on whether you can suspend your disbelief from 21 storeys without it crashing to the ground. If you're prepared to go with the premise that marries Mexican stand-off tension with a reasonably inventive heist plot in which no twist is considered too silly for deployment then grab a bag of popcorn and join the ride.

The ledge-bound bloke in question is Nick (Sam...

There was an outbreak of cult films at Sundance 2011 - from joining one in Higher Ground, attempts to infiltrate one in Sound Of My Voice to the devastation they can commit in Kevin Smith's oddly pitched horror/action/comedy/politics mash-up Red State. The prize for creeping under your skin, however, has to go to Sean Durkin's debut feature Martha Marcy May Marlene - which is a whole lot more memorable and resonant than its cumbersome title.

Those four women are, in fact, just one - Martha...

Considered by many to have been one of the world's greatest authors, WG Sebald ('Max' to his friends) left a unique European legacy that resonates across time and space. This documentary explores its artistic and intellectual impact, opening with a mapping project that explores the locations he used and the geographical notions underlying them.

Sebald was an early synthesist, bringing together multiple intellectual disciplines as well as multiple forms of media....

Alexander Payne is one of the most aesthetically daring directors in America. He doesn't shy away from ugliness, he embraces it. The shots after the opening credits show a Hawaii rarely seen on film, and George Clooney's voice-over gets rid of all doubt that The Descendants will capture us with a touristy paradise of surfboards and cocktails on the beach. We go to the hospital instead, where a woman is in a coma after a water-skiing accident.

Clooney plays her husband, Matt King, a lawyer in Honolulu, and a...

Liam Neeson teams up once more with his A-Team director Joe Carnahan for a frostbitten thriller that sinks its teeth in deep even if it doesn't quite have enough meat on its bones. Co-written by Carnahan with flashes of the earnest grit of his breakout cop drama NARC, The Grey is an old-school man-against-the-elements thriller, enlivened by committed performances and the spectacular locale. What really...

The digital transfer and sound are fine enough, though bearing in mind Iguchi is an exploitation director, picture and sound quality are not high on the agenda.

The only real extras are the Japanese market trailer and a rambling but quite frank one hour interview with Iguchi, which offers a lot of detail about his background as well as the making of Tomie.

Perhaps the most eagerly awaited DVD release of the year so far, Drive may not have found many friends amongst Academy voters, but its arrival is sure to delight cinema lovers everywhere.

Ryan Gosling is The Driver. And a good one at that. He provides expertise as a wheel man for criminals seeking a quick escape and also gets behind the wheel as a stunt driver for the movies. When he's not doing either of those he works at a garage with likeable low-life Shannon (Bryan Cranston). When not...

A lengthy interview with likeable-in-person lead Tsumabuki is all the more charming for taking place in the informal setting of a restaurant, the star and his questioner sharing a hot-pot as they discuss aspects of the complicated production and the young actor's daring approach to tackling such serious and unconventional subject matter. The conversation does become somewhat repetitive however, in spite of some jaunty editing and the natural rapport between its participants.

There is...

The film itself has been newly restored and received a brand new high-definition transfer (see 2012 note), with optional (English) subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.

There is a fascinating introduction by writer/director Peter Watkins (27min), opening with a scrolling text that offers a political and historical background to the film's inception, after which he discusses the...

If you're sick of DVD extras that play out as little more than a verbal group hug, then the double-play disc of Arrietty is for you. It features a smart and insightful 25 minute interview with Hayao Miyazaki that not only offers a good level of detail regarding the genesis of the project and its creation but also an analysis of the state of Japanese animation today. Although he clearly likes his chosen (first-time) director Hiromasa Yonebayashi - nicknamed Maro - he doesn't...