New on DVD and Blu-ray: April 11, 2017

The new DVD and Blu-ray releases for the week of April 11, 2017 include the Oscar nominated biopics "Lion" and "Hidden Figures", the sci-fi adventure film "Monster Trucks", the crime comedy "War on Everyone", the horror film "The Bye Bye Man", the western "Brimstone" and the Foreign Film Oscar nominee "Toni Erdmann". James Franco fans might be interested in the Blu-ray release of the 2006 film "Tristan + Isolde".

We also have three new series released this week on home video, HBO's "Silicon Valley" (Season 3) and "Veep" (Season 5), and National Geographic's intriguing miniseries "Mars".

There are also a decent number of oldies-but-goldies, mostly released as remastered Blu-ray editions. Among them, the most notable are the Criterion Collection's "The Young Girls of Rochefort" and "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg", the horror films "Dark Waters", "House: Two Stories", and the collections featuring films in the "Phantasm" series and the "Dead or Alive" trilogy.

Check out all the new movies and TV shows released on DVD and Blu-ray after the jump.

Movie Review: LION (2016) Starring Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman

Director: Garth Davis
Genre: Drama
Starring: Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara, David Wenham, Sunny Pawar, Priyanka Bose
Runtime: 118 min
Rating: PG-13 for thematic material and some sensuality
Purchasing Links: DVD, Blu-ray

Read the review after the jump.

2017 BAFTA Awards Winners (Complete List)

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced the winners of the 2017 BAFTA awards in London on Sunday night. "La La Land" continues its hot streak with four wins, including Best Film and Director (Damien Chazelle). Ken Loach's drama "I, Daniel Blake" won for Best British Film, while "Lion" and "Manchester by the Sea" scored wins for Adapted and Original Screenplay, respectively.

In the acting categories Casey Affleck, Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Dev Patel took home trophies. Oscar hopeful "Moonlight" walked home empty handed.

In the technical categories the winners include "Hacksaw Ridge", "The Jungle Book", "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", "Arrival" and "Florence Foster Jenkins"

Read the complete list of BAFTA 2017 winners after the jump.

2017 Directors Guild Winners Announced (Complete List)

I suppose it's no longer a surprise that "La La Land" won top honors at the Directors Guild Awards, as the film has already won most of the major awards this season and the path to a landslide Oscar win is now pretty clear. Other DGA winners include Garth Davis for "Lion" in the Best First Feature category, and Miguel Sapochnik, who won Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Dramatic Series for his work on the "Game of Thrones" episode "Battle of the Bastards".

Read the Complete List of DGA Winners after the jump.

2017 Oscar Nominations: LA LA LAND Ties Record With 14 Nods

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have announced the nominations for the 2017 Oscar awards. The leader of the pack is "La La Land" with 14 nods, tying the record for most Oscar nominations, which is currently held by "Titanic" and "All About Eve". The musical entered the Best Picture race alongside "Arrival", "Fences", "Hacksaw Ridge", "Hell or High Water", "Hidden Figures", "Lion", "Manchester by the Sea" and "Moonlight".

The next films to score the most nominations are "Moonlight" and "Arrival" with 8 nods each, followed by "Lion", "Manchester by the Sea" and "Hacksaw Ridge" with 6 each.

In the Best Director category, Mel Gibson scored his first nomination in 10 years. He was last nominated for "Braveheart" in 1995 and won. He is joined by Damien Chazelle ("La La Land"), Denis Villeneuve ("Arrival"), Barry Jenkins ("Moonlight") and Kenneth Lonergan ("Manchester by the Sea").

Amy Adams was not nominated for Best Actress in what is most likely the biggest snubs of the year. Adams' work in "Arrival" has been receiving recognition left and right, but not at the Oscars. The Academy instead chose to once again nominate Meryl Streep for "Florence Foster Jenkins", and some feel it might be in part because of her fiery speech at the Golden Globes and vocal opposition against Trump. On a positive note, Isabelle Huppert managed to score a nod for her amazing role in Paul Verhoeven's "Elle".

Other snubs include Martin Scorsese "Silence", which only received a nomination for Best Cinematography, and Clint Eastwood's "Sully". The latter similarly received a single nod for Best Sound Editing. Also, for those of you hoping that "Deadpool" would have a good Oscar run following the PGA and WGA recognition, unfortunately it didn't work out. The comic book movie received no nominations. In fact, comic book movies were poorly represented this year. Only "Suicide Squad" and "Doctor Strange" managed to get nominated, for Makeup and Visual Effects, respectively.

It was a huge day for companies, however, as Amazon managed to be the first to have one of their films, "Manchester by the Sea", nominated for Best Picture, beating Netflix to the punch. As for which studio won the most nominations, that would be Lionsgate with 26 nods, with "La La Land" and "Hell or High Water" among their Oscar lineup.

The 89th Academy Awards will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, and they will be broadcast on February 26th on ABC.

Read the complete list of 2017 Oscar nominees after the jump.

2017 Directors Guild Awards Nominations Announced

The last of the major guilds, the Directors Guild of America, has announced its nominations for the 69th Annual DGA Awards. While many of the nominees will surprise no one, here's one that actually was kind of surprising. Tim Miller's work on "Deadpool" has been rewarded with a nod for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Feature Film. This makes the comic book adaptation an unexpected contender in the Oscars race, especially since it also has a PGA nomination under its belt.

Nate Parker was nominated for his directorial debut "The Birth of a Nation", which comes to sweeten the blow that the film received after controversy involving Parker's rape charge from his college days. However, this is the only nomination that Parker has received in this entire awards season, so the DGA nod comes as little consolation for a film that was once seen as a major contender and ended up a box-office failure.

Another surprise is that Garth Davis pulled off a double-nomination for his work on the true story drama "Lion". He was nominated both for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Feature Film and First-Time Feature Film. Now, "Lion" is a perfectly okay film, but the attention it's been getting this awards season is crazy. Plus, nominating Davis means that some huge players were left off the list: Martin Scorsese for "Silence", Denzel Washington for "Fences", Clint Eastwood for "Sully" and Mel Gibson for "Hacksaw Ridge". Well, at least I'm happy to see Villeneuve made the list after being snubbed last year for "Sicario".

The winners of the 2017 Directors Guild Awards will be revealed on February 4th.

Check out the complete list of DGA film nominations after the jump.

BAFTA 2017: Complete List of Nominations

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts have announced the nominees for the 2017 BAFTAs, and, as expected, "La La Land" dominates with a total of 11 nominations, including Best Film. "Arrival" and "Nocturnal Animals" follow with 9 nods each, the latter also being the biggest surprise on this list since its critical reception wasn't overwhelmingly positive. The other Best Film nominees are "I, Daniel Blake", "Manchester by the Sea" and "Moonlight".

Ken Loach's drama "I, Daniel Blake", the Harry Potter spinoff "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", and the true story dramas "Hacksaw Ridge" and "Lion", all scored five nominations each. Barry Jenkins' "Moonlight", considered a major frontrunner for the Oscars, only received four nods, tied with Stephen Frears' "Florence Foster Jenkins".

Surprisingly, or not if you've been following the awards season so far, Martin Scorsese's religious epic "Silence" was snubbed once again. Clint Eastwood's "Sully" shares a similar fate. Both films started out as major contenders, but quickly fell out of the race by missing out on all the major awards.

Another film that is absent is Paul Verhoeven's "Elle", but the reason it missed out on being nominated is because it doesn't open in the UK until March. It will probably be nominated next year, just like Oscar winner "Son of Saul", which wasn't eligible last year, but received a nomination this year.

The BAFTAs also included box-office behemoths "Rogue One" and "Doctor Strange". The films share two nominations each for Make Up/Hair and Visual Effects, and the latter also received a third nomination for Production Design.

The British Academy Film Awards will be announced at a ceremony hosted by Stephen Fry on February 12th.

Read the complete list of nominations after the jump.

New LION Trailer, Clips, Images and Posters

The drama "Lion" tells the uplifting true story of Saroo Brierley (Dev Patel), who was lost on a train when he was five years old and survived alone in Kolkata before ultimately being adopted by an Australian couple, played by Nicole Kidman and John Brierly.

Now a grown man, Saroo decides to find his birth family using only his memories and Google Earth. The film has received four Golden Globe Awards nominations including Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Patel) and Supporting Actress (Kidman).

Directed by Garth Davis ("Top of the Lake"), the film also stars Rooney Mara, Priyanka Bose and Sunny Pawar.

"Lion" began a limited run in theaters on November 25th and will expand nationwide on Christmas Day.

Check out the trailer, clips, images and posters after the jump.

New Soundtracks: 808 - THE MUSIC, BAD SANTA 2, LION, I AM BOLT and More

The new soundtracks released on the week of November 25th, 2016 include the music from the documentary "808", the "Bad Santa 2" Various Artists album, Dustin O'Halloran & Hauschka's score for "Lion", the score from "I am Bolt" composed by Ian Arber, and more.

Find out more about all the new soundtrack releases after the jump.

New Movie Trailers: LION, A DOG'S PURPOSE, A UNITED KINGDOM, WAR ON EVERYONE

Check out the new trailers for the following movies after the jump:

• LION (The Weinstein Company)
• A DOG'S PURPOSE (Amblin Entertainment and Universal Pictures)
• A UNITED KINGDOM (Pathé)
• WAR ON EVERYONE (Icon Film)

Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel to Star in LION

Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel have signed on to lead the drama "Lion" for The Weinstein Company. The film is based on a real-life story chronicled in a Vanity Fair article called "A Home at the End of Google Earth" about a five-year-old boy lost in Calcutta who’s adopted by an Australian couple. After graduating college, he decides to track down his roots using Google Earth. Patel will play the boy while Jackman and Kidman will star as the Australian couple. This is the second collaboration for Jackman and Kidman after Baz Luhrmann's "Australia", and Patel will also star alongside Jackman in Neill Blomkamp's sci-fi film "Chappie". "Lion" is currently being shopped around to distributors and it doesn't yet have a director, but surely with such actors attached to it, it shouldn't have much trouble attracting some interesting names.

---

     RELATED POSTS :

• Robert Downey Jr. Joins CAPTAIN AMERICA 3 in Iron Man vs. Captain America Story
• Javier Bardem in Talks to Star in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 5
• Tom Hardy, Will Smith and Margot Robbie Close to Joining SUICIDE SQUAD
• Ezra Miller to Lead THE FLASH Movie Set for 2018
• Neil Patrick Harris to Host 2015 Oscars
• Patrick Stewart to Star as White Supremacist Leader in GREEN ROOM
• Benedict Cumberbatch To Play Doctor Strange
• Marvel Reveals Phase 3 Titles and Release Dates