Check out the brand new Awards Circuit!

That's right, the relaunch of The Awards Circuit is finally here! We'd all like to thank each and every one of our readers for your patience and loyalty during this transition. There are still a few rough edges that will be sorted out through the rest of the week. Until then, enjoy our new home!

Oh no, where did The Awards Circuit go?!

No worries, folks. We're planning a big surprise for you all heading into the new awards season, but it'll require the site itself to be down for at least 48 hours. Until then, enjoy this classic Oscar parody video after the cut!

Will the Weinsteins still push Madonna's W.E. for Oscar consideration after it bombed in Venice?

Deadline has the news:

The signs are always the same when any studio knows it has a bomb. Executives won’t commit any opinion to email. Instead, phone calls from them pledging to “explain everything” are promised but never come. The suits deny up and down any truth to the inevitable leaks about a troubled shoot or creative friction or bad buzz. But when the studio is financially on-the-fence The Weinstein Co, and the film is Madonna’s first feature-length directorial effort W.E. about Walllis Simpson, and its debut is at the unforgiving Venice Film festival which has panned far bigger and more influential big names in filmdom, then not even the PR maestro Harvey Weinstein can downplay crushingly lousy reaction and reviews.

Fact is that the international press and its U.S. counterparts are having a field day killing Madonna’s movie in what can only be seen as the latest “Death In Venice”. Or maybe the more accurate way of saying this is “Death By Venice”. The Times of London claimed madonna had made an inadvertent comedy “screamingly, inadverdently funny in parts [that] had ‘em rolling in the aisles at Venice” The Guardian review was truly vicious under the headline, “Madonna’s jaw-dropping take on the story of Wallis Simpson is a primped and simpering folly, preening and fatally mishandled”. Only the Daily Mail gave it a thumbs-up. But my guess that probably has more to do with that newspaper’s long and troubled history with Madonna who in 2009 won a multimillion dollar lawsuit again the Daily Mail and whose legal reps have been threatening the paper repeatedly of more to come because of its nearly always negative coverage of her.

The 38th Annual Telluride Film Festival announces its lineup...

...and you can read all about it in this press release:

Telluride, CO (September 1, 2011) – Telluride Film Festival (September 2-5, 2011), presented by the National Film Preserve, announces its program for the 38^th Telluride Film Festival. Featuring diverse programming from around the globe, TFF once again sets the stage for some of the year’s most highly anticipated films.

TFF opens its 38^th year with over twenty-five new feature films plus special artist tributes, Guest Director programs selected by Caetano Veloso, Backlot programs, classics and restorations, shorts, student films, seminars and conversations, each introduced or proceeded with a Q&A by its filmmaker, actors, writer or producer. Telluride Film Festival opens Friday, September 2 and runs through Labor Day, Monday, September 5.

The slate is after the cut...

Margaret gets a Poster and a Trailer!

Hit the jump for the Trailer...

Did Paul Thomas Anderson already finish shooting The Master?

According to Damon Wise from Empire Online, yes:

Want to see Kevin Smith's Red State early? Now's your chance!

Indeed, the controversial filmmaker is bringing his latest work to the On Demand spectrum for a limited run following its Oscar qualifying run recently in L.A., all in advance of its slightly more standard theatrical debut and DVD/Blu-Ray release in October. It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of this movie, and it's not everyday that you can essentially watch a film before it hits theaters. Check it out and join in on the conversation about one of my very favorite pieces of cinema in 2011!

-Thoughts on the film if/when you see it?