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

unspecified

HOWDY, DOCTORS

Grey's Anatomy spins off new medical drama led by Houston-born showrunner

Photo via Meg Marinis/Instagram

Showrunner Meg Marinis poses with actor Kevin McKidd, who recently exited Grey's Anatomy after more than a decade playing Dr. Owen Hunt.

ABC is bringing the Grey's Anatomy universe to Texas with a new one-hour rural medical drama co-created by longtime showrunner Meg Marinis. Marinis was born in Houston and is an alum of both the Kinkaid School and the University of Texas at Austin.

According to an exclusive report from Deadline, which production company Shondaland shared on social media, the untitled series has received a straight-to-series order from ABC and will follow a team at a rural West Texas medical center described as “the last chance for care before miles of nowhere.”

The series marks the first Grey’s Anatomy franchise show set outside the West Coast, and it's the first that's not centered around an existing main character from the original series.

The new drama will be co-created by Shonda Rhimes and Marinis, who has spent nearly two decades working on Grey’s Anatomy. She joined the series during its third season as a production assistant before rising through the ranks to become a researcher, writer, executive producer, and now showrunner.

"This opportunity will bring new characters and stories to life that will embody the same heart, emotion, and connection audiences have loved from Grey’s for more than two decades, all set in my home state of Texas,” Marinis said in a statement announcing the series. "I am so grateful to Shonda Rhimes for creating this dynamic world and feel so fortunate that I get to be a part of it.”

Marinis’ path to running one of television’s biggest franchises started in Austin. In an interview with Shondaland last year, she recounted moving to Los Angeles during her final semester at UT through the university’s UTLA entertainment program, which allows students to complete coursework while interning in the industry. While finishing school, she interned at Universal before landing a production assistant role on Grey’s Anatomy in 2006.

Marinis has also woven Texas experiences into the flagship series itself in recent years. According to Deadline, she personally knew families affected by the Camp Mystic tragedy and rewrote part of a recent Grey’s Anatomy episode after becoming emotional while working on the script.

The West Texas setting is particularly timely, as rural healthcare access remains a growing issue across the state. According to the Texas Hospital Association, more than 20 rural Texas hospitals have closed since 2010, while roughly a quarter of the state’s remaining rural hospitals are considered at risk of closure.

By centering the new series on what ABC describes as “the last chance for care before miles of nowhere,” the franchise could bring national attention to healthcare access challenges facing communities across West Texas and other rural parts of the state.

The new series joins a long lineage of Texas-set television dramas, though not all were actually filmed in the state. Grey’s Anatomy itself is famously set in Seattle while primarily filmed in the Los Angeles area. Friday Night Lights became closely associated with Austin through extensive local filming, while series like Dallas often recreated Texas from California sound stages, with exteriors of Southfork Ranch serving as the Ewings' fictitious home. Walker, Texas Ranger, meanwhile, became one of the best-known examples of a network drama heavily filmed across Texas itself.

Even after more than 20 years on the air, Grey’s Anatomy remains one of television’s most durable franchises. According to ABC, the drama is now the longest-running primetime medical drama in television history and continues to rank among the network’s strongest scripted performers.

Ellen Pompeo, who stars as Dr. Meredith Grey in the original series, is attached as an executive producer, and the new drama is expected to premiere in 2027.

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HOWDY, DOCTORS

Grey's Anatomy spins off new medical drama led by Houston-born showrunner