The Oxford American have bestowed their Lifetime Achievement in Southern Literature upon reclusive True Grit author, Charles Portis. He collected his award at the inagural Best of the South Gala in Little Rock on Saturday, April 3, 2010.

Read this interesting summary of the evening which includes his thoughts on the Coen brothers’ forthcoming adaptation – “I’m all for it,” he said, “as long as the checks don’t bounce.”

Joel and Ethan Coen have been nominated in the category Original Screenplay for A Serious Man at this year’s Writer’s Guild of America awards to be held on 20th February simultaneously in LA and New York. Here is the complete list of nominees;

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

(500) Days of Summer, Written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber; Fox Searchlight

Avatar, Written by James Cameron; 20th Century Fox

The Hangover, Written by Jon Lucas & Scott Moore; Warner Bros.

The Hurt Locker, Written by Mark Boal; Summit Entertainment

A Serious Man, Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen; Focus Features

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Crazy Heart, Screenplay by Scott Cooper; Based on the novel by Thomas Cobb; Fox Searchlight

Julie & Julia, Screenplay by Nora Ephron; Based on the books Julie & Julia by Julie Powell and My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme; Sony Pictures

Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire, Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher; Based on the novel Push by Sapphire; Lionsgate

Star Trek, Written by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman; Based upon Star Trek, Created by Gene Roddenberry; Paramount Pictures

Up in the Air, Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner; Based upon the novel by Walter Kirn; Paramount Pictures

DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY

Against the Tide, Screenplay by Richard Trank & Rabbi Marvin Hier; Moriah Films

Capitalism: A Love Story, Written by Michael Moore; Overture Films

The Cove, Written by Mark Monroe; Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions

Earth Days, Written by Robert Stone; Zeitgeist Films

Good Hair, Written by Chris Rock & Jeff Stilson and Lance Crouther and Chuck Sklar; Roadside Attractions

Soundtrack for a Revolution, Written by Bill Guttentag & Dan Sturman; Freedom Song Productions and Louverture Films

A Serious Man star Michael Stuhlbarg has been honoured with the Chopin Virtuosos Award at this year’s Santa Barbara International Film Festival along with  Carey Mulligan (for An Education), Saoirse Ronan (for The Lovely Bones) and Gabourey Sidibe (for Precious).

Of Stuhlbarg’s performance SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling said ; “Best known for his talents on the Broadway stage, Michael Stuhlbarg’s performance in “A Serious Man” as a suburban father in 1967 whose life crumbles right before him is thought-provoking and allows us to laugh at life’s seemingly insurmountable troubles.”

The National Board of Review has announced it 2009 award winners and A Serious Man scooped the gone for Best Original Screenplay.

The Coen brothers’ latest movie, A Serious Man has been nominated for two awards at the 25th Film Independent Spirit Awards. The nominations for Joel and Ethan Coen in the Best Director category and for the ridiculously awesome, Roger Deakins in the Best Cinematography category. In addition the movie has been awarded their Robert Altman Award which is a special one awarded to just one film’s the director, casting director and its ensemble cast. The award ceremony takes place on Friday March 5th 2010.
The Coens have been successful at the Spirit Awards before. In 1997 Fargo won the awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Female Lead (Frances McDormand), Best Male Lead (William H. Macy) and Best Cinematography (Roger Deakins – told you he was awesome!). In 1986 Blood Simple was nominated for Best Picture but was beaten by Martin Scorsese’s After Hours while that movie and Blood Simple shared the gong for Best Director, M. Emmet Walsh also won the Best Male Lead award for his creepy, slimey portrayal of Loren Visser.

The Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival has announced shortlists for all four of its awards, two of which are brand new, one of which the Coen brothers’ A Serious Man has been nominated for. In opposition for the newly created award are Wes Anderson’s awesome looking Roald Dahl adaptation “The Fantastic Mr. Fox”, artist Sam Taylor Wood’s debut movie about John Lennon’s life “Nowhere Boy”, John Hillcoat’s adaptation of the heart-breaking Cormac McCarthy (who wrote No Country For Old Men incidentally) novel “The Road”, Robert Connonlly’s “Balibo”, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Micmacs”, Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet”, Jane Campion’s “Bright Star” and Micheal Haneke’s “The White Ribbon”.

The awards will be, err, awarded on 28th October.

According to a poll of film critics and bloggers by indieWIRE the Coen brothers’ latest movie, A Serious Man was the best film at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

Here’s the top 10 Best Narrative Films;

1. A Serious Man, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen (63 points)
2. City of Life and Death, directed by Chuan Lu (20)
3. Up In The Air, directed by Jason Reitman (18)
3. A Prophet, directed by Jacques Audiard (18)
5. Dogtooth, directed by Giorgos Lanthimos (17)
6. Precious, directed by Lee Daniels (16)
7. I Am Love, directed by Luca Guadagnino (11)
7. Hadewijch, directed by Bruno Dumont (11)
7. A Single Man, directed by Tom Ford (11)
7. Lebanon, directed by Samuel Maoz (11)

Star of the movie, Michael Stuhlbarg also came in third in the poll for Best Lead Performance;

1. Colin Firth in “A Single Man” (13)
2. Tilda Swinton in “I Am Love (12)
2. Michael Stuhlbarg in “A Serious Man” (12)
4. Tahar Rahim in “A Prophet” (10)
5. Anne Dorval in “I Killed My Mother” (9)
5. Nicolas Cage in “The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” (9)
5. Matt Damon in “The Informant!” (9)
5. Katie Jarvis in “Fish Tank” (9)

Very nice indeed. I’m getting very excited about the movie now but I have quite a long wait. Don’t forget you people in the US that the movie is out on 2nd October! Also, remember that you can keep you Coen diary up-to-date using the widget in the side-bar on the right.

Oscar dodger and long-time Coen movie composer, Carter Burwell, has been awarded a career achievement award by his peers at the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers at the 24th Film and Television Music Awards gala, held at the Beverly Hilton on Monday night. He’s has worked on every single Coen brothers’ movie from Blood Simple (which was his debut) to the forthcoming A Serious Man.

So that’s nice for him, now all he needs is some worthy recognition from the Academy…

Burn After Reading has won the TCM Audience Award at the 56th San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain.

“The TCM-AUDIENCE AWARD at the 56th San Sebastian International Film Festival, carrying a cash prize of €70,000 in aid towards promotion of the winning film, goes to “BURN AFTER READING“ by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, distributed in Spain by Universal Pictures Internacional Spain, S.L. This film was granted 8,639 points out of a maximum of 10.”

Also at that site you can watch a 32 minute press conference (in either Spanish or English) with John Malkovich (sporting a frankly AMAZING jacket) who appears to have been the only representation for the movie.

Also here’s the Spanish poster (click for larger).

If you have not yet read Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union I urge you to. Not only is a great, great book but it is also to be made into a movie by Joel and Ethan Coen. So, you know, get to it!

Anyway congratualtions are due to Mr. Chabon as the novel scooped the Best Novel gong at this year’s Hugo Awards. The Hugo Awards have been given annually since 1955 and are science-fiction’s most prestigous awards. Now, if you’d have asked me to categorise this book I would NOT have chosen Sci-fi. I must have missed the alien invasion part…