Awards season is already in full swing with the HFPA having awarded the Golden Globes this past weekend, and the LAOFCS announcing their winners last month. Often times, they are an indicator of who will end up being nominated or winning an Academy Award. However, actors, writers, producers, and directors in respective guilds and societies have their own awards that recognize its members. We’ve already seen nominations from SAG, WGA, and PGA, and now the Directors Guild of America have released their own nominees for film and TV.

Among those honored are Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water, Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird, Jordan Peele for Get Out, and Aaron Sorkin for Molly’s Game. There’s also Christopher Nolan for Dunkirk and Martin McDonagh for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Check out the full list below.

Wes Anderson films are anything but conventional. He has a visual sense composed of flat cameras, snappy zooms, symmetrical compositions, hand-made art, and miniature feels, that give the film’s setting a sense of uniqueness. On top of that, he has a quirky and yet hypnotic soundtrack that often utilizes pop songs of the ’60s and ’70s. Then there is the dysfunctional family that takes center stage of the storytelling. And while all of that plays a huge role in his live-action films, Anderson has also dipped his hand into stop-motion animation. An animation medium where his skills can be put to good uses because of its use of practical hand made set pieces.

Which takes us to Isle of Dogs, Anderson’s latest directorial effort that uses stop-motion animation. And just wait until you hear who has lent their talents for the film. Check out the cast and trailer below.

Just a few weeks ago we saw Wes Anderson‘s holiday short/ad for H&M. So while it may have looked like Anderson took a long vacation, but the filmmaker has been hard at work. And he isn’t just releasing shorts.

We’ve known that he’s been putting together his next film, a stop-motion animated feature all about dogs on an island. Now we know who will star in the film as the director has announced the full cast and shooting location for Isle of Dogs. Check out the video announcement below.

Jackie
Director: Pablo Larraín
Screenwriter: Noah Oppenheim
Cast: Natalie Portman, Greta Gerwig, Peter Sarsgaard, Max Casella, Beth Grant, Billy Crudup, Richard E. Grant, John Hurt
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Rated R | 99 minutes
Release Date: December 2, 2016

Contemporary biopics no longer adhere to the traditional means of telling the entire life story of a subject. Nowadays, audiences are only given a small fraction of it. But it is in that stage of life that truly defines the subject. In Jackie, we see Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy at her most vulnerable point in life, where she has to deal with the grief of losing her husband, the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. The traumatic event would be enough to shatter anyone, but it is what she does in the aftermath that will truly cement her name among the greatest of First Ladies. With a strong script from Noah Oppenheim and director Pablo Larrin giving an outsider’s perspective on the matter, Jackie is hauntingly poetic view of an untold story. My full review below.

Frances Ha

Filmed in black-and-white, Frances Ha is directed by Noah Baumbach (Kicking and Screaming, The Squid and the Whale) and written by Baumbach and Gerwig. The film plays out like a Woody Allen-inspired episode of HBO’s Girls, without the awkward nudity but plenty of hipster cliches. Previously, Gerwig starred in Baumbach’s 2010 film Greenberg, and you may recognize her from films like Hannah Takes the Stairs, House of the Devil, Arthur, and No Strings Attached.