The Shadow of Mordor’s latest DLC, The Bright Lord, is coming out soon, and TORn was lucky enough to have a quick Q&A with Monolith’s Director of Design, Michael de Plater.
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Category: Other Events
The 42nd annual Annie Awards nominees were recently announced, which has different dates for eligibility (so expect nominations next year for “The Battle of the Five Armies”.) “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” received 2 nominations from the International Animated Film Society (ASIFA). The Annie Awards honor the very best in the world of animation including animated effects. The Annie Awards are being held on January 31 at UCLA’s Royce Hall in Los Angeles.
Outstanding Achievement, Animated Effects in a Live Action Production
Steve Avoujageli, Atsushi Ikarashi, Pawel Grochola, Paul Waggoner, Viktor Lundqvist – Edge of Tomorrow – Warner Bros./Village Roadshow Pictures
Raul Essig, Karin Cooper, Rick Hankins, Owen Calouro – Noah – Paramount Pictures
Charles-Felix Chabert, Daniel La Chapelle, Spencer Lueders, Klaus Seitschek, Chris Messineo – The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Pictures/Marvel Enterprises
Areito Echevarria, Andreas Soderstrom, Ronnie Menahem, Christoph Sprenger, Kevin Romond – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Metro Goldwyn Mayer/New Line Cinema/WingNut Films
Michael Balog, Jim Van Allen, Rick Hankins, John Hansen – Transformers: Age of Extinction - Paramount Pictures
Jeremy Hampton, Daniel Stern, Edmond Smith III, Hiroshi Tsubokawa, Daniel Jenkins – X-Men: Days of Future Past – Digital Domain 3.0, Inc.Outstanding Achievement, Character Animation in a Live Action Production
Daniel Barrett, Paul Story, Eteuati Tema, Alessandro Bonora, Dejan Momcilovic – Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Chernin Entertainment/Ingenious Media/TSG Entertainment
Kevin Spruce, Dale Newton, Sidney Kombo, Chris Mullins, Brad Silby – Guardians of the Galaxy – Marvel Studios
Eric Reynolds, David Clayton, Andreja Vuckovic, Guillaume Francois, Gios Johnston – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Metro Goldwyn Mayer/New Line Cinema/WingNut Films
Full list of nominees at AnnieAwards.org.
Continue reading “Annie Awards nominates ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ for 2 awards”
While the Academy Awards did not recognize “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” in the Visual Effects category, the Visual Effects Society did. The 13th Annual VES Awards were announced with “The Hobbit” receiving 4 nominations. The VES Awards will be held on February 4th in Beverly Hills.
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Guardians of the Galaxy
Interstellar
Maleficent
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
X-Men: Days of Future PastOutstanding Models in any Motion Media Project
Big Hero 6; City of San Fransokyo
The Boxtrolls; Mecha-Drill
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies; Laketown
Transformers: Age of Extinction; KnightshipOutstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Captain America: The Winter Soldier; Helicarrier Broadside and Crash
Edge of Tomorrow; Destruction and Sand
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
X-Men: Days of Future Past; Quicksilver Pentagon KitchenOutstanding Compositing in a Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Edge of Tomorrow; Beach
Interstellar; Water
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Full list of nominees at VES.
Continue reading “Visual Effects Society nominates ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’ for 4 awards!”
The 87th Academy Award Nominations for the 2015 Oscars were announced this morning. Every year there are surprises and “snubs” and this year is no exception with chatter about films like “Selma” and “Gone Girl” lighting up Twitter and award blogs.
“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” received only 1 nomination for its final outing for Sound Editing. “The Desolation of Smaug” and “An Unexpected Journey” each received 3 nominations so this a bit of a surprise. “The Battle of the Five Armies” missed out on a nomination this time in the stacked Visual Effects category despite being a finalist. Joe Letteri did receive a nomination for his work on “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”. The other nominees in this category are “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”, “Guardians of the Galaxy”, “Interstellar”, and “X-Men: Days of Future Past”. Sadly, “The Hobbit” also missed out in the Original Song category. Here’s the list for Sound Editing:
SOUND EDITING
American Sniper – Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) – Martin Hernández and Aaron Glascock
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Brent Burge and Jason Canovas
Interstellar – Richard King
Unbroken – Becky Sullivan and Andrew DeCristofaro
Full list of nominees at Oscars.com. Weta Digital won a scientific and technical Academy Award that was announced yesterday. Finally, congratulations to Benedict Cumberbatch who received his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor in “The Imitation Game”.
Continue reading “‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’ receives an Oscar nomination”
Staffer Justin spots the Hobbit connections in yesterday’s Golden Globes awards ceremony:
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies was not nominated in any categories at the 2015 Golden Globes, but it was still very present at the ceremony. From the outset of the first award, Benedict Cumberbatch raised his hand to present on stage with Jennifer Aniston. Smaug the prankster was just getting warmed up.
A few minutes later during a photo-op gag featuring Meryl Streep and Margaret Cho, Benedict repeated his famous #Cumberbomb in what was probably one of the most DVR-rewind moments of the night. (Click the image for the animated GIF!) 
Eddie Redmayne took home best dramatic actor for The Theory of Elvenking errr Every Ring errr Everything, but few knew about his Hobbit connection! Mr Redmayne originally auditioned for Bilbo way back when, and the audition did not go very well. Watch the video below to see him telling Graham Norton about it.
Fans on Twitter also spotted BOFUR himself James Nesbitt in the audience!
Several awards including Screenplay and Comedy Actor went to BIRDMAN. We are talking about the same bird man right?
Martin Freeman and the team in FARGO won for Best Miniseries. That makes Martin one of the most gilded TV actors between Sherlock and Fargo.
Even without any nods to The Hobbit, the fact that Middle-earth has touched the careers of so many wonderful actors makes for a fun awards watching experience. Awards season is just getting started – will you help us bring it to an eagle-soaring completion at #OneLastParty?
One Last Party fundraiser!
Our One Last Party fundraiser on Indiegogo is 80% funded and we’re pretty stoked!
If you’d like to join us as a Party of Special Magnificence in Hollywood in February — a toast to all SIX Middle-earth movies, then now is the time to throw in your support! Even if you can’t make it to Hollywood (or if you’ve already contributed), you can help out by retweeting or sharing our fundraiser across social media to get the word out.
Nominations for the British Academy Film Awards were announced today. The BAFTAs ceremony will be hosted by Stephen Fry on Sunday, February 8 in London. “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” received a nomination for special visual effects with Joe Letteri netting two nominations — one for his work in “The Hobbit” and the other for “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”:
SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Erik Winquist, Daniel Barrett
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Stephane Ceretti, Paul Corbould, Jonathan Fawkner, Nicolas Aithadi
THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, R. Christopher White
INTERSTELLAR Paul Franklin, Scott Fisher, Andrew Lockley
X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST Richard Stammers, Anders Langlands, Tim Crosbie, Cameron Waldbauer
Source: BAFTA
Continue reading “‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’ visual effects nominated for a BAFTA Award”