What's Next for the Award-winning Birdman Team? The Revenant starring Leonardo DiCaprio

Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu and Michael Keaton/Birdman

The awards just keep on coming; the Critics Choice Awards were handed out on the 15th. You can get the whole list at the Critics Choice site but the major take aways are that Boyhood took the Best Picture Award with the director Richard Linklater winning as well as Patricia Arquette for Best Supporting Actress. They gave Boyhood's Ellar Coltrane the Best Young Actor nod, which is nice as while he's the boy in Boyhood, he's not had that much attention. Julianne Moore once again took the top actress prize; it would be hard to imagine Ms. Moore not winning the Oscar for her stunning work in Still Alice.  Emily Blunt won Best Actress in an Action Movie for Edge of Tomorrow; one of my favorite movies of the year even if it will never see an Oscar. If you haven't seen it, rent it.

And if you haven't seen it, try to see Birdman while it's in theaters. Birdman took home seven awards, the most of the night with Michael Keaton garnering three: Best Actor and Best Actor in a Comedy — it's a very dark comedy, make no mistake, and Best Acting in an Ensemble. The composer prize went, not to Monsieur Desplat for his scores to The Imitation Game or The Grand Budapest Hotel but to Antonio Sanchez for Birdman. Birdman also scored a win for the script co-written by director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñaritu, for Editing by , and for its cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki. That's Lubezki doing the framing things with his hands in the image above.

Leonardo DiCaprio (seen here with Fiddy) in full-on beard mode to play Hugh Glass in The Revenant

Pay attention to all the respect Birdman is getting because in between award shows Birdman director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu (say that three times, fast, go on, I dare you!) is currently at work on his next feature, The Revenant, a biopic starring Leonardo DiCaprio due out Christmas Day. And he's got Birdman cinematographer, the much-nominated Emmanuel Lubezki with him. Lubezki won the Oscar for last year's Gravity; he was also nominated for his work as the director of photography on Terence Mallick's gorgeous looking Tree of Life, and Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men as well as A New World, Sleepy Hollow, and A Little Princess. It might be worth noting while there's been a lot of conversation about a lack of diversity in Hollywoodland, an industry absolutely dominated by white men, both Iñarritu and Lubezki hail from Mexico, and Mexicans haven't exactly been privy to all the privileges of the white world either. So at least there is a little color in the conversation. Progress? The production recently put out a casting call for additional First Nation people to work as background actors, a good sign that the filmmakers are trying for authenticity which increases the on-screen diversity.

Anywaaaaay, in my post — Canada stands in for the American West in Leonardo DiCaprio's The Revenant — I told you that Iñarritu who gave us Babel, Biutiful, 21 Grams (and now the Oscar nominated Birdman) was directing the movie based on Michael Punke's 'revenge western'. Consider this your friendly reminder that the movie is coming, one you might want to know about considering all the mega talents involved. It's such a guy movie, with a male-dominated cast and crew (that much is NOT new) I can't imagine all that testosterone flying around. The hair and make-up people and some of the set dec crew must be in 'hog-heaven.'

The Revenant centers on frontiersman Hugh Glass' (Leonardo DiCaprio) search for the men who left him for dead after a bear mauling. He's mad as hell, and out for revenge! The heavyweight cast includes Tom Hardy, Domhnall (Rising Star) Gleeson, Will Poulter and Lucas Haas.

I don't know if I'll read this book — should I? — but I'm excited to add the film to the list of Books to Read before You See the Movie 2105.