The Oscars of the H

13 winners and one big loser to be named at Houston Film Critics Society Awards

Jeff Bridges in "True Grit"
Natalie Portman in "Black Swan"
"The Social Network"
"The King's Speech"
James Franco in "127 Hours"
"Black Swan"

Think of it as H-Town’s answer to the Academy Awards, or the Golden Globes. Only without the red carpet and all those annoying celebrities.

The Houston Film Critics Society will present its fourth annual year-end awards program this weekend at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston — festivities begin at 4 p.m. Saturday — and the organization has proudly announced that special tributes to George Clooney (winner of the 2010 HFCS Humanitarian Award) and Texas native Sissy Spacek (winner of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award) will be part of the program. Mind you, neither Clooney nor Spacek actually will be present to accept their accolades, but they’ll be honored nonetheless.

On the other hand, two other honorees, winners of the HFCS Outstanding Achievement in Cinema awards, are expected to be on hand: Hector Luna, founder and editor of C-47 Houston magazine, and Charles Dove, director of the Rice University Media Center.

As for the competitive prizes, Members of the HFCS — an organization representing 22 Houston area film critics for print, broadcast and online outlets — will announce winners in 13 categories (and a loser in the 14th, Worst Picture) during the MFAH program. Once again, none of the winners are expected to be on hand to claim a prize. But, hey, admission to the awards program is free and open to the public, and organizers promise a plethora of film clips to delight all movie buffs in attendance. Better still, after the show there’ll be a free-admission reception where avid discussions and diligent networking will be actively encouraged.

And if you’re in the mood to handicap the various HFCS award races, note that Best Picture hopefuls True Grit, The Social Network and 127 Hours lead the pack this year with six nominations each. The full list of nominees follows:

BEST PICTURE:
 127 Hours
Black Swan
Inception
Kick Ass
The Kids are All Right
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

BEST DIRECTOR:
 Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
 Danny Boyle, 127 Hours
 Joel & Ethan Coen, True Grit 
David Fincher, The Social Network
 Christopher Nolan, Inception

BEST ACTOR:
Jeff Bridges, True Grit
 Robert Duvall, Get Low
 Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network 
Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
 James Franco, 127 Hours

BEST ACTRESS:
Annette Bening, The Kids are All Right 
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole 
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
 Natalie Portman, Black Swan 
Noomi Rapace, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: 
Christian Bale, The Fighter 
Andrew Garfield, The Social Network 
Bill Murray, Get Low
 Jeremy Renner, The Town 
Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech 
Melissa Leo, The Fighter
 Julianne Moore, The Kids are All Right
 Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit 
Jackie Weaver, Animal Kingdom

BEST SCREENPLAY:
The Kids Are All Right, Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
Winter’s Bone, Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini (based on the novel Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell)
Toy Story 3, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich (story) and Michael Arndt (screenplay)
Inception, Christopher Nolan
The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin (based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich)

BEST ANIMATED FILM:
 Despicable Me
How to Train Your Dragon
Tangled
Toy Story 3

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Roger Deakins, True Grit 
Matthew Libatique, Black Swan 
Anthony Dod Mantle & Enrique Chediak, 127 Hours 
Wally Pfister, Inception 
Eduardo Serra, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One

BEST DOCUMENTARY:
Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer
Marwencol
Restrepo
The Tillman Story
Waiting for Superman

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Biutiful, Mexico
Carlos, France/Germany
Mother, South Korea
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Sweden
The Secret in their Eyes, Argentina

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:
Carter Burwell, True Grit 
John Powell, How to Train your Dragon
 A.R. Rahman, 127 Hours 
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, The Social Network 
Hans Zimmer, Inception

BEST ORIGINAL SONG:
“If I Rise,” from 127 Hours, music by A.R. Rahman and lyrics by Dido Armstrong & Rollo Armstrong
 “Shine,” from Waiting for Superman, music & lyrics by John Legend
 “The Clap,” from Get Him to the Greek, music & lyrics by Dan Bern & Mike Viola 
“We are Sex Bob-Omb!” from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, music & lyrics by Beck 
“You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me,” from Burlesque, music & lyrics by Diane Warren

WORST MOVIE OF THE YEAR:
 Furry Vengeance
Jonah Hex
Sex and the City 2
Splice
The Last Airbender

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Rising up

Houston chef slices into Gordon Ramsay-led cooking competition show

A Trinidad González/Facebook

Chef Trinidad "Machete" González is competing on Next Level Chef.

A Houston chef is showcasing his skills on Season 5 of Next Level Chef. Trinidad Gonzalez, better known locally as Chef Machete is one of the professional chefs who will compete in cooking challenges for the opportunity to win $250,000 and professional mentorship from celebrity chef judges Gordon Ramsay, Nyesha Arrington, and Richard Blais.

This Fox show has a unique conceit. Chef teams work together in three kitchen stacked on top of each other, like a strange multi-story culinary incubator where the top floor's kitchen is pristine, with state-of-the-art equipment, the bottom floor's kitchen is decrepit, and the middle floor is an average commercial kitchen. Other twists bring added challenges.

Locally known for his Bay Area taqueria Gordo Niños, Machete is a self-taught chef who serves fusion style tacos and burritos. Available with fillings such as chicken, pastor, and beef, the chef's "secret menu" of over-the-top items such as deep-fried burritos or the "Surf N Turf Killa-Dilla," a quesadilla stuffed with shrimp, carne asada, french fries, guacamole, two kinds of cheese, and Mexican ketchup — add the chef's signature "Lean Sauce" for another $1. He's also a multi-time winner of taco competition that's part of the University of St. Thomas's popular Two Saints and a Taco fundraiser.

Machete survived the first episode, which aired on January 29, making him eligible to be drafted onto a team led by one of the judges. A new episode, which debuts this Thursday, February 5, will feature two Texas-based "social media" chefs, Tim Laielli and Christian Alquiza.

Laielli, who is based in Dripping Springs, has 1.4 million followers on Instagram and 910,000 subscribers on YouTube. He doesn't have an obvious signature style that viewers can expect him to lean on in the competition. If anything, his strength may be his willingness to try new recipes, often using his daughters' requests and cuisines around the world as a springboard (whether complying or completely ignoring them) into dishes like Thai curry, homemade McGriddles, and a lot of steaks.

Over in Austin proper, Alquiza posts videos under the punny account name @illsqueezeya. He's also worked for the channel First We Feast, where he hosts Hot Kitchen, a snappy instructional show focusing on indulgent, dramatic foods like super-hot chicken and a 10,000-calorie cheat meal.

Alquiza's personal videos follow more of the standard food show format, with the chef speaking to the camera and offering step-by-step instructions to follow along with. Even though his image is mostly wrapped up with First We Feast, Next Level Chef considers him a social media chef.

The two Austin chefs have even collaborated before. Things seem to have gone well on the show, since all three Texas chefs posed for a picture at Beyond The Lines Tattoo in Austin, with a text overlay revealing that the chefs got inked up together.

Next Level Chef season 5 contestants at Beyond the Line Tattoo Looks like the chefs had a good time.Beyond the Lines Tattoo/Instagram

Viewers can watch Next Level Chef every Thursday on Fox or streaming the next day on Hulu.

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Eric Sandler contributed to this article.

$Trinidad Gonz\u00e1lez Next Level Chef$

A Trinidad González/Facebook

Chef Trinidad "Machete" González is competing on Next Level Chef.

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