News

Los Angeles — It was pencils down at 5pm Pst Thursday afternoon as balloting for the nominations stage of the 87th annual Academy Awards drew to a close. This weekend, then — until the competition takes hold once again Sunday night at the Golden Globe Awards — provides a beat to breathe. But not too much. It's still the circuit. And this year's toasted talents were out in force Saturday at events like the morning's Film Independent Spirit Awards brunch in West Hollywood and the annual BAFTA Tea gathering down the street in the afternoon. At the brunch — a notable 30th anniversary celebration for the Spirits — it was a nice mix. That event has gotten bigger and bigger just in the last couple of years. It used to be a modest check-in at the door. Now the street is teeming with paparazzi and lookie loos. Team "Boyhood" was still in stride after Wednesday's soiree,...

The fact is the work someone like costume designer Deborah Cook does on a film like "The Boxtrolls" should be afforded the same respect during the Oscar season as what, say, Colleen Atwood does on "Into the Woods." Or what another legend like Milena Canonero conjures on "The Grand Budapest Hotel." The disciplines are one and the same, to say nothing of the fact that the level of detail on Laika's latest is as eye-popping as ever. Yet the season often relegates everything done on a stop-motion film to the realm of "animation" and leaves it at that. I had all of that on my mind when I recently talked to Cook about her most recent work. It really is part and parcel of the overall marvel of craftsmanship consistently on display from the Portland-based animation company. The handmade appeal of the work stretches into its most basic building blocks,...