It was a magical night in Tinseltown, during which the stars were aligned and the year's great films and the people who made them happen were awarded richly and rightly. Well, almost. The Clint Eastwood-directed "American Sniper" fell tonight under enemy fire. Are academy voters turning into tree-huggers on me? Where's the love? This year's voters sent a strong anti-war message by leaving the perfect-score "Sniper" out of the

The red carpet has been unfurled and Hollywood is getting ready for its collective close-up. The 87th Academy Awards, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, will be taking place at Hollywood's 3,300-seat Dolby Theatre tonight. It's pretty clear that it's down to "Birdman" and "Boyhood," both of which are jockeying for the best picture nod. Performers on hand include Lady Gaga, Rita Ora, Jennifer Hudson and Anna Kendrick.

At the last Cannes Festival this past May Abderrahmane Sissako's slow burn-tale about a town's descent into Islamist hell was the first movie I saw. By the end of fest (that is, about fifty movies later), "Timbuktu" waded around my brain like a very sweet but anxiety-inducing dream I once had. It's now nearly a year later now and director Sissako has triumphed as France's best filmmaker, getting some well-deserved recognition

There are a lot of ways that “The Hunting Ground” echoes “The Invisible War,” director and writer Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering’s last documentary. Both are films that expose the ugly side of celebrated institutions, with “The Hunting Ground” taking on star universities and “The Invisible War” confronting the U.S. military. Both lay bare the banality of sexual violence that occurs within these institutions

Ethan Hawke’s first feature documentary “Seymour: an introduction” makes no attempt to be comprehensive about the life of its titular subject, classical pianist Seymour Bernstein. Instead, it focuses on what drew Hawke to Seymour: his sagaciousness and reflections on music, artistic devotion, and life. Eighty-seven years young, Seymour is a guru who not only mentors in piano playing but also

“Farewell to Hollywood,” a documentary film by Henry Corra and [...]

This April the Newport Beach Film Festival will feature a [...]