Happy Holidays! Free Screenplays, Jennifer Lawrence & More

Hi everyone! I'm just taking this time to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday as I'll be indisposed over the next few days. I'm leaving for Florida with my parents tomorrow shortly after dinner. I also just wanted to thank everyone for the level of support I've received over the last few months with this blog; I never imagined having an audience to share my writing with.

I still have a lot of movies to see before I compile my Top 10 list: Dallas Buyers Club, Her, The Wolf of Wall Street, August: Osage County, Saving Mr. Banks, and Short Term 12 are all among the films that have eluded me up until this point. In a year of such great movies, there's a lot more urgency to see everything; even a lot of the mainstream films such as The Hunger Games have been first rate this year; it's been fantastic for filmmakers.

As it stands right now, we still have yet to hear from the PGA (Producers Guild), DGA (Directors Guild) and WGA (Writers Guild). SAG helped narrow the pool of acting contenders, but it's still up in the air as to what films and what directors will make it in. Remember the guilds pretty much represent the voting blocks of the Academy, so what they pick is very important (though it's also important to remember that the Academy has its own distinct voice and sometimes makes bold choices). We'll hear from the Broadcast Film Critics and the Globes in January.

Other cool things:

• Gravity's Best Picture, Director and Actress nominations have been sealed; they will happen, along with many other craft & tech nominations. But one nomination that has never been certain has been the screenplay. For a movie so visually stunning, people often forget that the script is the blueprint, despite how visual heavy it is. "From Script to Scene" (which you can watch by clicking on those very words) is a 5 minute video demonstrating how Cuaron and his team took the screenplay and made it into the actual film. Fox Searchlight did a similar thing a few years ago with Natalie Portman's ballet training for Black Swan when she was being touted as a Best Actress nominee (and she eventually won).
• Speaking of screenplays, every screenplay from 12 Years A Slave to The Bling Ring is available to read and download here (legally!) from the studios. Just think of it as my Christmas gift to you all.
• Vulture spoke with 12 Years A Slave's screenwriter John Ridley on the toughest scene he had to write in the film; The scene with Mistress Shaw, played by Alfre Woodard.
• The New Yorker lists their top films of the year
• 9 Photos of Jennifer Lawrence That Will Make You Reassess The Scope of the 1986 Vienna Convention On The Law Of Treaties Between States And International Organizations