Yes folks, it’s that time of year again – awards season in Hollywood has well and truly kicked off! The first of the major awards shows in the lead-up to the Oscars is the Golden Globes, a night to celebrate achievements in both film and television for the last year. The combination of stars always makes for an interesting red carpet – those that were utterly gorgeous, those that were ok but not quite there, and those that really make you wonder what people think when they look in the mirror!!

A Christmas Carol is one of the most popular Christmas tales, written in 1843 by Charles Dickens, and has undergone many movie adaptations. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Jim Carrey and from Disney, this 3D animated version brings the old story to life, although it’s not nearly as kid-friendly as expected.

To refresh your memories, the classic tale follows one Ebenezer Scrooge, a grouchy and stingy old man who is devoid of any Christmas spirit and detests anyone partial to the festive season. To cure this, he is visited on Christmas Eve by the ghost of his former business partner, then the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, who take him on a whirlwind journey through many memories and possibilities.

Playing on the theme of the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future from the Charles Dickens classic ‘A Christmas Carol’, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past replaces an old, miserly man with an attractive guy that doesn’t believe in love. An entertaining and amusing journey ensues as the ghosts attempt to help him change his ways and win the love of his life before it’s too late.

Anzac Day, celebrated by Australians and New Zealanders on the 25th of April, is a public holiday to remember those who fought at Gallipoli, as well as in other World War I campaigns, World War II and all wars since. On this day in 1915, Anzac troops landed in Gallipoli for a much longer battle than first anticipated, and until they evacuated eight months later, over 8000 Australian lives were lost. To commemorate this significant day in our own ‘Cut Print Review’ way, I have put together a list of eight great war films to help us imagine how terrible war must be and to see just how terrible and futile war really is.

I love a happy ending. You know, when you have a movie with that tried-and-tested formula: good vs evil, goodies fight baddies, goodies triumph and all live happily ever after. All live happily ever after. Like in Disney fairytales. The prince fights whatever obstacles the evil queen, witch or sea monster throws at him, defeats them and their evil ways, and rescues his princess. Then they kiss and all is well. But movie directors, producers and writers need to give their stories a bit more bite, a bit more edge. They don’t want to be all predictable, using that same old wonderful formula. Oh no. They love killing off a character in there somewhere to make the audience feel something; to make them sad or angry, to make them sympathise with the other characters in their plight.

The Academy Awards has long been Hollywood’s night of nights, where the superstars both on screen and behind are awarded with the highest accolades in their field. For a prestigious occasion such as the Oscars, you have to dress for it, of course!! So as well as our wrap of the awards ceremony itself that you can see here, we have the all-important special feature on the Oscars red carpet. I will take you through ten of the best and ten of the worst dressed as voted upon by me, so as I said for the Golden Globes, be prepared for a totally biased opinion based on what I liked or loathed!!

When films have names like Beautiful, you go along half expecting to see this beauty described in the title, but half expecting it to be the exact opposite. Dean O’Flaherty has created a film here that is the best of both worlds: in some parts it is stunning, the title aptly describing these moments, but in other parts it is just shocking, showing how terribly ugly our world can be. In amongst these stark contrasts is a film that is an intriguing piece of contemporary Australian cinema, with an unexpectedly brutal ending.

Screening with Beautiful at the BigPond Adelaide Film Festival, Schadenfreude is the first short film directed by Australian Peter O’Brien (Underbelly). And what a strange little film it is! Opening with a man (Barry Otto) hopping along on one foot with one shoe missing, the film becomes a mystical journey into a bar with a distinct carnival feel (think the Adelaide Fringe’s Garden of Unerarthly Delights and you’ll understand!). Among a cast of weird and wonderful characters who look straight from the circus the man finds the normal-looking waitress (Miranda Otto), whilst having flashbacks to when he lost his shoe. He has no luck getting it back, as a very strange man with a gravity-defying moustache has kept it and not only added it to his vast shoe collection, but has done a few alterations to create something new with the shoe.