ScreenForum: Morning News Bulletin

Good morning all.

The Morning News Bulletin is a daily roundup of film news that happened over the last couple of hours while we were fast asleep here in SA. Check the news headlines after the jump.

First up, Bosnia is reportedly not happy with Angelina Jolie's film about sexual violence during the 1990s calling her ignorant."Angelina Jolie's ignorant attitude towards victims says enough about the scenario and gives us the right to continue having doubts about it," the Women Victims of War (WVW) association said in a letter published on Monday this week. The letter was written to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), for which Jolie is a goodwill ambassador. The film is Jolie's directorial debut, a love story between a Muslim woman and a Serbian man set during Bosnia's 1992-1995 ethnic war. The Muslim character is raped by a Serbian man, whom she later falls in love with. "Angelina made a big mistake. We feel that she did not act like a real UNHCR ambassador and we believe that she has no more credibility to remain the ambassador," the WVW letter concluded. This is not the first time that a film about turmoil in Bosnia has sparked criticism. Richard Gere starred as a journalist in a film about a group of media people who try to hunt down Bosnian war criminal Radoslav Bogdanovic. The film says they found themselves in serious jeopardy when they are mistaken as a CIA hit squad and their target decides to come after them. The Bosnian's questioned the authenticity of the film, however.

Meanwhile in Tinseltown, the second awards show of the season after the Independent Spirit Awards announced it's winners yesterday. The American National Board of Review named The Social Network as it's Best Picture, with same film also picking up the Best Actor award for Jesse Eisenberg, Best Director for David Fincher and Best Adadpted Screenplay for Aaron Sorkin. Here's the full list of winners via Deadline Hollywood:

Best Film: The Social Network (Sony Pictures)
Best Director: David Fincher, The Social Network
Best Actor: Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Best Actress: Lesley Manville, Another Year
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter (Paramount/Relativity)
Best Supporting Actress: Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
Best Foreign Language Film: Of Gods and Men
Best Documentary: Waiting for “Superman”
Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3
Best Ensemble Cast: The Town
Breakthrough Performance: Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
Debut Directors: Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington, Restrepo
Spotlight Award: Sylvain Chomet and Jacques Tati, The Illusionist
Best Original Screenplay: Chris Sparling, Buried
Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
Special Filmmaking Achievement Award: Sofia Coppola for writing, directing, and producing Somewhere
William K. Everson Film History Award: Leonard Maltin
NBR Freedom of Expression: Fair Game, Conviction, Howl
Production Design Award: Dante Ferretti, Shutter Island

Theses awards are not necessarily good indicators for predicting who the big winners will be for the Oscars but nonetheless I'm sure Sony Pictures will be happy to get any sort of momentum and recognition they can for The Social Network in the race for the Best Picture Oscar.

We close off today with the trailer for the new film, And Everything Is Going Fine, by renowned director Steven Soderbergh (Ocean's Eleven, Traffic):