Entertainment Express: Amour, Missoni, Sally Field, Bafta Rising Stars, The Beatles

* Michael Haneke’s French drama, Amour picked up some more pre-Oscar love this past weekend. The National Society of Film Critics gave it their top honour of best film and its star Emmanuelle Riva, best actress. Lincoln won for best actor (Daniel Day-Lewis) and best screenplay, but Zero Dark Thirty, another strong would-be Oscar contender, came home empty-handed.

* Authorities are still searching for a small plane carrying the director of Italy’s Missoni fashion house, Vittorio Missoni, and his wife, as well as 5 other people, which went missing on Friday. Already fashion pundits are looking into the the future of the design house – Missoni’s collaboration in 2011 with Target crashed the retail giant’s website because of the higher-than-expected demand for the brand’s signature zig-zag designs.

* The Palm Springs International Film Festival Gala took place this past weekend, and, according to those who were there, Sally Field’s star shone the brightest as she accepted the Lifetime Achievement award, at the event, founded by Sonny Bono over 2 decades ago. With the Oscar ballots for nominations already due the day before the fest kicked off, some of the actors accepting awards may have unknowingly been practicing for Oscar night.

* The BAFTAs have announced its crop of on-the-cusp-of-stardom actors, or actresses should I say. Four out of the five names are female, after last year’s all-male Rising Star list. The award will be handed out at the ceremony in London in February, and either Elizabeth Olsen (most recently seen in Liberal Arts), Juno Temple (soon to be seen in Maleficient with Angelina Jolie), Andrea Riseborough (Shadow Dancer), Alicia Vikander (A Royal Affair) or first-time actor Suraj Sharma from Life of Pi will nab it, and go on to even more critical acclaim!

* Will they ever run out of Beatles memorabilia to auction off? Seems not. A set of 65 rare, unpublished colour photos of The Fab Four during their first tour of the US, in August 1964 after their legendary appearance on the Ed Sullivan show earlier that year, will go under the hammer on March 22 – the 50th anniversary of  the band releasing their first album, Please Please Me.