Iron Man opens this week, and thus the summer movie season has officially arrived. I love a good summer movie as much a the next guy, but this morning I found myself looking back at some of the little films that cropped up during the summer; some of them managed to get a "summer" feel on a much lower budget and without all the advertisement and hype. My absolute favorite summer art house movie has to be Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run (1999). I saw it three times that summer, and each time I clutched my seat, my heart pounding. I was amazed at how brilliantly Tywker had mapped out his three possible storylines and how lovely the small, quiet interludes were. I loved Franka Potente, and I loved his throbbing score, which practically entered into your bloodstream and pumped up your adrenaline by hand. Every color, movement and cut was designed for maximum effect (I've always been puzzled how Tykwer's movies since have seemed so long and sluggish.)

Also that same summer, John Sayles delivered his baffling adventure/suspense film Limbo, which had several people trapped on an island awaiting rescue and stalked by bad guys. The ending had everybody in an uproar and caused the film to die a quick death. The summer before that one, Darren Aronofsky's debut feature Pi gave me a good dose of sci-fi thrills, as well as a few head-scratching puzzles (which were actually real). 2000 was a particularly bad summer, but John Waters' Cecil B. DeMented provided a mischievous little oasis in the middle of it all. In that film, renegade filmmakers kidnap a Hollywood starlet and force her to be in their indie production; each team member has a tattoo of a maverick filmmaker's name. (I've often wondered which filmmaker's name I would pick for a tattoo? Maybe David Cronenberg...)

In case you haven't been paying attention, today is filled with Critics Circle Awards news. There are still a few major cities, Chicago for example, who haven't yet announced their picks, but so far, with the New York Film Critics Circle picks added in, it looks like a complete sweep for the King (Forest Whitaker of The Last King of Scotland) and the Queen (Helen Mirren of The Queen) in the lead acting categories. It isn't quite, though, if you take into account that Whitaker tied with Sacha Baron Cohen (for Borat) for the Los Angeles best actor spot. Otherwise, can we assume that these will be our Oscar winners? Hey, you never know -- Philip Seymour Hoffman almost swept last year's critics awards (NY and SF went with Heath Ledger) and he was a lock.

The rest of the NYFCC awards were like a snatch and grab of the rest we've seen so far. United 93, Half Nelson, Martin Scorsese and Jennifer Hudson were represented yet again. The group had a few surprises, however. Best supporting actor went to former child actor Jackie Earle Haley for Little Children and the foreign language pick was Army of Shadows, which Jean-Pierre Melville made more than 35 years ago.

The Screengrab has an interesting inside story on the voting process Monday morning (held at a conference room at Star Magazine). Some of the juiciest revelations are that the best picture category was nearly a tie (it was 12-10, United 93 over The Queen); that technically A Scanner Darkly might have won best animated film had Andrew Sarris not been in the bathroom during the category's vote; that Army of Shadows won only because of a tight battle between The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and Volver. This really goes to show how a group's awards don't necessarily reflect the choices of all of its critics.

Anyway, to keep up with all the Awards season winners, check out the Movie City News scoreboard.

Check out the full list of NYFCC winners after the jump.

Well, this is weird. For the bulk of my 30+ years on this planet, there's been no such thing as a "televised horror awards" presentation, and now, not 15 minutes removed from geeking out over the newly-announced Fangoria Chainsaw Awards nominations -- I come across the Spike TV Scream Awards nominations! Cool!

Now, with all due respect to Spike TV and their cool new concept, I gotta say the Fango Chainsaw noms are just a little bit cooler. But hey, there's no law that says the horror freaks can't hang their hat on TWO new awards presentations. Frankly I think we could use a few more enthusiastic celebrations of juicy genre filmmaking.

Anyway, the Screams seem to run a lot like the Chainsaws do: Check out all the categories and nominees (after the jump) and then head on over to SpikeTV.com and cast your own votes! This is particularly amusing for the horror nuts -- because we're nothing if not passionately opinionated on which horror flicks rock and which ones suck the proverbial egg. Spike TV broadcasts their Scream Awards on the evening of October 10th.

Over at Winona Ryder News Channel, they have a great interview up with Mike Stovall, one of the 50 or so animators who made A Scanner Darkly, well, animated. Ever wondered what it would have been like to be a part of the animation team for A Scanner Darkly? Shorts and t-shirts, dogs lying around the office, and frequent steak nights, plus a weekly quota of frames to get done. Sounds kinda like my first internet project management gig many moons ago, except we ordered in lots of Chinese take-out (mmm, New York City Chinese food) and Mountain Dew by the case. Ah, the good old days, when working 18-hour-days felt exhilarating and cool.

Stovall also spills on some cool stuff about the animation process itself (it sounds like lots of tedious work, to be honest, but I'm sure it sounds way more exciting to any graphic artists out there) and the film itself, which Stovall says is very true to the book (this, as he also points out, could limit its appeal to audiences used to being spoon-fed). He also let's drop some Winona-related tidbits: she (and the rest of the cast) shot wearing no makeup, and she still looked pretty; and - better sit down now, Winona fans - she's topless in the movie,  but what you're seeing are animated boobies, not the real thing. Ryder wore an exercise top to cover herself during filming. Maybe Sharon Stone will take a lesson from Ryder's playbook on that score. Nah, probably not.

Go read the whole interview, it's good stuff. Cool animation, Winona Ryder, and an intelligent storyline that actually stays true to the book? Wow. Now I'm at least 12% more interested in seeing it. Besides, I kinda want to see which Keanu Reeves we have in this film: Cool, sexy Matrix Keanu? Earnestly serious, I'm-really-trying-to-be-a-good-actor indie film Keanu? Or, heaven forfend, absurdly wooden Johnny Mnemonic Keanu? By the way, in case you missed it the first time, Jette Kernion caught the special-super-top-secret screening of A Scanner Darkly at SXSW, but she unfortunately didn't give us any info on either Keanu's acting or Winona's animated boobies, so you'll just have to wait until July (July? That long?) to see the film yourself.