Unlike the seasons that pass annually in nature thanks to the tilt of Earth's axis and its course through the solar system, awards season culminates in a climactic event that epitomizes nearly everything associated with the yearly handing out of statuettes and accolades.  The 84th annual Academy Awards ceremony takes place this Sunday at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, where Billy Crystal will host the proceedings for the ninth time in a telecast produced by Brian Grazer.

We're in the home stretch of awards season here, and as we coast ever closer to the Oscar ceremony at the end of this month, it looks like the official issuing of statues of accolades has settled into an almost entirely predictable pattern.  That pattern sees the silent film homage The Artist picking up the major awards, just as did at tonight at the 64th British Academy of Film and Television Arts, where Michel Hazanavicius's film picked up no fewer than seven awards, including Best Film, Director, Leading Actor, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Original Music, and Costume Design.

With its famous traffic, ubiquitous smog, and abhorrent city planning, Los Angeles tends be a bit of a punching bag for the rest of the country, from the Midwest to New York City.  While one could argue the cultural and aesthetic value of the city all day, it is without a doubt the premiere city in America for moviegoing.  There are, of course upscale theaters like the Arclight or the Landmark, and there are unparalleled revival houses such as the New Beverly, the Aero, and the the Silent Movie Theater. 

In addition to this embarrassment of riches, there's the cinematic programming at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Wilshire Boulevard.  Film Independent, the very same non-profit organization that puts on the annual Independent Spirit Awards celebrating the best in independent film, has a year-round weekly film series curated by critical luminary and KCRW's The Treatment host Elvis Mitchell.

As awards season continues to ceaselessly pummel us all with official nominations, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts has issued their nominees for the 2012 Orange British Academy Film Awards.  These potential BAFTA Awards winners include plenty of the ringers we've been seeing on pretty much every list of Stateside nominations, especially The Artist with a whopping twelve nods, but the Brits have also shown some love for films largely getting lost in the shuffle over here.

Some folks get excited about football season, others about baseball season, and still others get their jollies altogether more improbably from awards season.  While the former are actual competitions intentionally meant to culminate in an ultimate victor, the awards season, which ends with all the pomp, circumstance, and orgiastic "Who are you wearing?" spectacle of the Academy Awards, turns movies into a competition.  After the initial volley of critical awards late last year, we're now in the phase of specific professional organizations announcing their nominations.

A phenomenon swept the nation over this past weekend, and it involved audiences uniformly and venomously booing The Devil Inside as soon as the credits rolled on the found footage horror movie.  The film's mediocrity has now been well documented by audiences on Twitter, accompanied by almost unanimously terrible critical reviews and a rare "F" score collected by market research firm CinemaScore.  Being pretty much objectively a really, really crappy movie didn't stop The Devil Inside from making a fairly ridiculous amount of money in its debut weekend and easily topping the domestic box office.

From here to the end of February, nary a day will go by that won't have that dark cloud of the Oscars hanging over it, threatening to rain awards season accolades all over your day when you didn't think to bring an umbrella.  While a handful of critical organizations already went ahead and just started throwing honors around ally willy nilly, most of the awards news consists of nomination announcements.  Yesterday, the Producers Guild of America officially declared their line-up of would-be award winners, and today, the Art Directors Guild announced the movies, television series, and commercials up for the 16th annual art direction honors.

Another year has come and gone, and what a year 2011 was for movies! We’ve had sensational sequels (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol), impressive comic book adapted projects (X-Men: First Class), fascinating documentaries (Page One: Inside the New York Times), amazing animation (The Adventures of Tintin), groundbreaking 3D (Hugo), high-octane action (Drive), homerun hitting sports films (Moneyball), terrific dramas (The Descendants), hilarious comedies (Bridesmaids), blockbuster alien robots (Transformers: Dark of the Moon), movies that celebrate the art of cinema itself (The Artist), and the return of some true Hollywood legends (The Muppets).

The following is a look back at some of my favorite films of 2011. While my job as Managing Editor of IAR allows me to see almost every movie that is released, I was not able to see all of them (sorry Young Adult, and J. Edgar). The list I’ve compiled is based on the films that I did see this year and which of those are my favorites overall. I’m not necessarily saying that these are the ten best films released this year, but they are the ten I enjoyed the most.

Currently in theaters now, and opening wide on January 6th, is the new espionage thriller from Swedish director Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In) called Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which is based on the popular book by author John le Carre. The film stars a who's who of the best British actors working today including Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight), recent Oscar-winner Colin Firth (The King's Speech), Tom Hardy (Warrior), Mark Strong (Green Lantern), Ciaran Hinds (Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance), Benedict Cumberbatch (BBC's Sherlock), Stephen Graham (HBO's Boardwalk Empire), Christian McKay (I Melt with You), Toby Jones (Captain America: The First Avenger), and John Hurt (Immortals).

IAR's managing editor Jami Philbrick recently had an opportunity to sit down with Gary Oldman, and Mark Strong to discuss Tinker Tailor Solider Spy. The actors talked about the new film, their secretive characters, the life of a spy, adapting the novel, and working with each other on the project.

Today in potentially great casting news, Colin Firth has reportedly been offered the role of the villain in Oldboy, the remake of Chan wook-Park's incredible 2003 South Korean revenge tale.  Over the summer, Spike Lee signed on to direct the new film, which will combine elements of the 2003 movie, the Japanese Manga by Nobuaki Minegisha and Garon Tsuchiya on which it was based, and some all-new material.  Josh Brolin is set to star as a man inexplicably imprisoned in a crummy room for fifteen years and suddenly set free to find revenge.  If Firth signs on to Oldboy, he'd play the sadistic bastard responsible.