‘Eighth Grade,’ ‘Beale Street’ land Indie Spirit Awards nominations

LOS ANGELES: Coming-of-age movie “Eighth Grade” and family drama “If Beale Street Could Talk” scored best feature nominations on Friday for the Independent Spirit Awards, the annual honours given to Hollywood’s lower-budget movies.

“We the Animals,” a film about three biracial brothers, led all movies with five nods, including one for best first feature from director Jeremiah Zagar.

“Eighth Grade” was in the running for the top prize alongside “First Reformed,” “Beale Street,” “Leave No Trace” and “You Were Never Really Here.”

The best female lead category included nominations for Glenn Close for “The Wife” and Toni Collette for “Hereditary.” Joaquin Phoenix was nominated for best male lead for his performance in “You Were Never Really Here” and was up against “First Reformed” star Ethan Hawke, among others.

The Spirit Awards, to be held on Feb. 23, and hosted by the Film Independent organisation, celebrate artistic films made for under $20 million at an informal lunch on the Santa Monica, California beach the day before Hollywood’s glitzy Academy Awards ceremony.

In four of the past five years, the best feature winner at the Independent Spirit Awards has gone on to win best picture at the Oscars. Those winners were “Moonlight,” “Spotlight,” “Birdman” and “12 Years a Slave.”

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Oh boy – vintage Mickey Mouse posters to fetch thousands at auction

LONDON: Seven rare vintage posters of Mickey Mouse are expected to fetch thousands of dollars at an auction that coincides with the 90th anniversary of the cartoon character’s first film appearance.

The seven posters, dating from the 1930s and 1940s, went on display on Friday at a commemorative exhibition in London organised by Disney.

They are going under the Sotheby’s hammer in an online auction that runs until Nov. 26. A price list in a statement from the auctioneer and Walt Disney Co. UK & Ireland suggests they could fetch more than 130,000 pounds in total.

“We’re expecting a lot of interest… There are collectors who collect animation posters from all over the world and Mickey Mouse historically is the most valuable of all the animation characters,” Bruce Marchant, Sotheby’s film poster consultant, told Reuters.

“They’re particularly rare posters from England, France, Belgium and two of them are the only known surviving examples and for three of the others, there are certainly less than five known.”

Such posters were reused several times at cinemas and, being made of paper, most eventually fell apart and were thrown away. “So they were never meant to be looked at 80-90 years later” or viewed as works of art, Marchant added.

The exhibition, “Mickey’s UK Art Collective Exhibition”, is also showcasing new Mickey-inspired works by established and emerging UK artists including Jimmy C, Michael Bosanko and Pal Kumar.

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Stars gather for Chinese ‘Oscars’ in Taiwan

TAIPEI: Asian cinema’s top stars gather in Taipei on Saturday for Taiwan’s Golden Horse film awards, dubbed the Chinese-language “Oscars”, with acclaimed director Zhang Yimou’s “Shadow” leading the race.

Oscar-winning Taiwanese-American director Ang Lee, Chinese superstar Gong Li and Hong Kong’s “heavenly king” Andy Lau are among the celebrities due to walk down the red carpet in Taipei ahead of the glitzy ceremony.

Chinese director Zhang’s martial arts epic, inspired by traditional ink-brush painting, leads with 12 nominations including for the coveted best film, best director, best leading actor and actress awards.

Taiwanese comedy “Dear EX” about a widow fighting for her husband’s inheritance against his gay lover, follows closely with eight nods in the best film and best acting categories, plus a best new director nod for Taiwanese duo Mag Hsu and Hsu Chih-yen.

Best director contenders are all from China. Zhang, Jiang Wen (“Hidden Man”) and Lou Ye (“The Shadow Play”) will face off against 29-year-old Bi Gan (“Long Day’s Journey Into Night”) and Tibetan Pema Tseden (“Jinpa”).

Zhang has never won Golden Horse best director, while former actor Jiang, who starred in Zhang’s classic “Red Sorghum”, won the title with his directorial debut “In the Heat of the Sun” in 1996.

The best acting awards are also dominated by Chinese talent, with Taiwan’s Roy Chiu and Hsieh Ying-xuan fighting for a home win for their respective roles as the gay lover and widowed mother in “Dear EX”.

China’s Deng Chao, who plays the double of an official trained to protect him in ancient China in “Shadow”, is a frontrunner for best actor against compatriots Xu Zheng (“Dying to Survive”), Duan Yihong (“The Looming Storm”) and Peng Yuchang (“An Elephant Sitting Still”).

Deng’s wife, Chinese television star Sun Li, who also plays his wife in “Shadow”, is vying for best actress against Zhou Xun in Japanese director Shunji Iwai’s romance “Last Letter” as well as Zhao Tao (“Ash is Purest White”) and Zeng Meihuizi (“Three Husbands”).

Three Chinese dramas — “Long Day’s Journey Into Night”, “Dying to Survive” and “An Elephant Sitting Still” — are also in the running for best film.

The best documentary category sees “Our Youth in Taiwan” about the island’s 2014 Sunflower Movement pitted against “Umbrella Diaries: The First Umbrella” about Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Umbrella Movement. Both mass protests were led by young activists and reflected increasing resistance to Beijing’s influence.

The 55th edition of the awards is due to start at 7:00 pm (1100 GMT) in Taipei’s Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.

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With ‘my wife,’ Justin Bieber confirms marriage to Hailey Baldwin

LOS ANGELES: Pop singer Justin Bieber has confirmed his marriage to model Hailey Baldwin, posting the ultimate status update on social media two months after it was reported the couple had obtained a marriage license.

“My wife is awesome,” Bieber wrote on his Instagram account, next to a picture of himself and Baldwin walking and holding hands.

The Canadian singer is one of the world’s biggest-selling musical acts. Since releasing his last studio album in 2015, he has been featured on hits by other artists, including Major Lazer’s “Cold Water” and a remix of Luis Fonsi’s global sensation “Despacito,” in which Bieber sang in Spanish.

This summer, it was reported that Bieber was engaged to Baldwin, 21, the daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin, and in September media outlets reported they had obtained a marriage license in the United States.

The Arizona-born model has changed her name on Instagram to Hailey Bieber.

Justin Bieber, 24, was the second person after singer Katy Perry to reach 100 million followers on Twitter, and his millions of fans have taken a keen interest in his romantic life. He dated pop singer and actress Selena Gomez off and on for years.

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