ICE's NYSE swoop creates derivatives giant

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - IntercontinentalExchange Inc agreed as part of its $8.2 billion takeover of NYSE Euronext to pay the New York Stock Exchange operator a termination fee of $750 million if it fails to gain antitrust clearances, suggesting a high level of confidence the deal will go through.
Big Board parent NYSE could get out of the arrangement for a fee of $300 million if a sweeter deal were to come along, according to a regulatory filing on Friday.
ICE failed last year to buy NYSE in a joint bid with Nasdaq OMX Group . At the time, NYSE was involved in year-long pursuit to sell itself to Frankfurt's Deutsche Bourse. In the end, regulators killed both deals, saying they would be anti-competitive.
On its own, Atlanta-based ICE lacks the massive equities operations of Nasdaq or Deutsche Bourse, so there is less overlap between the two exchanges, antitrust lawyers said, making regulatory approval far more likely.
Some in the industry have suggested that CME Group could table a competing offer for NYSE, but they said that would not be likely for several reasons, including the break-up fee.
People familiar with the deal said other issues include potential antitrust concerns and the fact that under the latest agreement, NYSE's Liffe business will do all its clearing through ICE regardless of whether the deal goes through.
"The clearing deal they signed is like a second break-up fee," one of the people said.
Also, CME has not been known for making large deals. "It does not seem to be in its DNA," said Adam Sussman, director of research at Tabb Group.
NYSE CEO Duncan Niederauer acknowledged a higher bid could come along, but that NYSE would not chase after a deal unless it was almost certain it would pass regulatory muster.
"If we did that for another year and at the end we are told, 'we are not going to allow you to do this because of the overlap of your businesses,' we would look beyond foolish," he said in an interview on Thursday.
FOUR-WAY BATTLE
The deal, announced Thursday, would give 12-year old commodities and energy bourse ICE a powerful presence in Europe's lucrative financial derivatives market through control of NYSE Liffe, Europe's second-largest futures exchange, and a major advantage over U.S.-based rivals CME and Nasdaq.
All three want to challenge Deutsche Boerse's European dominance. A shake-up in banking regulation is expected to increase demand sharply for clearing financial derivatives through such exchanges.
"The deal would place a bigger and more aggressive competitor on Deutsche Boerse's doorstep," said Richard Perrott, an analyst at Berenberg Bank.
Regulatory changes in the wake of the financial crisis are forcing banks to channel derivatives business through clearing houses and regulated exchanges to ensure their risk positions can be better monitored than they were when bank dealers were trading complex contracts directly among themselves.
The reforms are expected to be fully operational in Europe in 2014.
ICE's takeover of NYSE Liffe will give it an advantage of existing presence in Europe over Chicago-based CME, owner of the world's largest futures market, and New York's Nasdaq, both of which plan to open their own London-based exchanges next year.
THE PRIZE
While the New York Stock Exchange, an enduring symbol of American capitalism, is NYSE Euronext's prestige business, London's Liffe is the real jewel in the crown.
With profits from stock trading significantly eroded by new technology and the rise of other places for investors to trade, the stock market businesses like NYSE are less valuable to ICE.
The company has said it will try to spin off NYSE's Euronext European stock market businesses in a public offering. This has generated speculation, which the company has denied, that it may also have little interest in the NYSE trading floor on Wall Street.
NYSE made an operating income of $473 million from Liffe in 2011 on revenues of $861 million compared to an income of $533 million on revenues of $1.3 billion from its equities business.
ICE's Jeff Sprecher will be CEO of the combined organisation and Duncan Niederauer, the NYSE Euronext CEO, will be president - a post he said he plans to remain in until at least 2014. The two are longtime friends.
ICE started out as an online marketplace for energy trading before Sprecher initiated a string of acquisitions, from the London-based International Petroleum Exchange in 2001, to the New York Board of Trade and, most recently, a handful of smaller deals, including a climate products exchange and a stake in a Brazilian clearing house.
A combined ICE-NYSE Euronext would leapfrog Deutsche Boerse to become the world's third largest exchange group with a combined market value of $15.2 billion. CME Group has a market value of $17.5 billion, Thomson Reuters data shows.

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Stocks sink after Republicans cancel budget vote

NEW YORK (AP) — Investors sent Washington a reminder Friday that Wall Street is a power player in talks to avoid the "fiscal cliff."
Stocks fell sharply after House Republicans called off a vote on tax rates and left federal budget talks in disarray 10 days before sweeping tax increases and government spending cuts are scheduled to take effect.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost as much as 189 points before closing down 120.88 points, or 0.9 percent, at 13,190.84. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 13.54 points to 1,430.15. The Nasdaq composite index declined 29.38 to 3,021.01.
The House bill would have raised taxes on Americans making at least $1 million per year and locked in decade-old tax cuts for Americans making less. Taxes will rise for almost all Americans on Jan. 1 unless Congress acts.
House Speaker John Boehner had presented what he called "Plan B" while he negotiated with the White House on avoiding the sweeping tax increases and spending cuts, a combination known as the fiscal cliff.
But Boehner scrapped a vote on the bill Thursday night after it became clear that it did not have enough support in the Republican-led House to secure passage. He called on the White House and the Democratic-led Senate to work something out.
The market's decline demonstrated that investors' nerves are raw as they await a resolution.
"Where we are today, the market would be satisfied with the announcement of a stopgap measure," said Quincy Krosby, a market strategist at Prudential Financial. "The more the clock ticks, the more the market is saying, 'Just give us something.'"
Sal Arnuk, a partner at Themis Trading, suggested that the sharp drop in stocks early in the day might have been an overreaction. The Dow was down as much as 189 points, and before the market opened, stock futures suggested a decline of 200 points or more.
"It's not a surprise that they weren't able to come to an agreement," he said. I don't think most of Wall Street anticipated that they would come to an agreement."
Other markets registered their concern, but the reaction was not extreme. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 0.04 percentage point to 1.76 percent.
The price of gold, which some investors buy when fear overtakes the market, climbed, but only by 0.9 percent. Gold rose $14.20 to $1,660.10 an ounce.
If the full fiscal cliff takes effect, economists say it could drag the United States into recession next year. The impact would be gradual, though, and a recession is not a sure thing.
Most people would receive only slightly less money in each paycheck. And the tax increases and spending cuts could be retroactively repealed if a deal comes together after Jan. 1.
If budget talks dragged on, many businesses might put off investment or hiring, and consumer spending could suffer. That's why most economists say it would be crucial to reach a deal within roughly the first two months of 2013.
"Believe you me," Krosby said, "if you think that there is a recession in the offing you are going to see this market sell off. It's sell off first, ask questions later."
It was not the first time that Wall Street worried about the fiscal cliff talks.
On the day after the election, when voters returned divided government to power, the Dow dropped 312 points. On Nov. 14, when President Barack Obama insisted on higher tax rates for the wealthy, the Dow dropped 185 points.
The sharp drop in stocks Friday was reminiscent of, although much smaller in scale than, what happened Sept. 29, 2008, during the financial crisis.
The House defeated a proposed $700 billion bailout of the U.S. financial industry, and the Dow plunged 777 points, its worst one-day decline. Four days later, the House, shaken by what had happened on Wall Street, passed a modified bill.
Stocks closed lower Friday in Asia after House Republicans canceled their vote. The Nikkei index in Japan fell almost 1 percent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped 0.7 percent. Stocks were also lower in Europe.
Among stocks making big moves:
— Walgreen, the nation's largest drugstore chain, slumped $1.24, or 3.3 percent, to $36.31. It filled fewer prescriptions and absorbed costs tied to acquisitions and Superstorm Sandy. The results were worse than financial analysts had been expecting.
— BlackBerry maker Research in Motion dropped $2.21, or 15.8 percent, to $11.74. The company said it won't generate as much revenue from telecommunications carriers once it releases the BlackBerry 10.
— Nike, the world's largest maker of athletic gear, jumped $6.10, or 6.2 percent, to $105.10. It said strong demand in North America led to a 7 percent increase in revenue in the three months ended Nov. 30, balancing out economic weakness in Europe and a slowdown in growth in China.
— Micron Technology dropped 6.9 percent, the biggest decline in the S&P 500 index. The semiconductor maker reported a loss late Thursday as weaker demand for personal computers and an oversupply of certain chips hurt its sales. The stock lost 47 cents to $6.32.

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Titan Advisors withdraws funds from SAC Capital - WSJ

(Reuters) - Titan Advisors LLC has decided to withdraw all of its money from the hedge fund firm SAC Capital Advisors LP, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, as SAC faces scrutiny because of several employees linked to insider-trading charges.
It's unclear how much money Titan, an asset-management firm based in New York, had invested with SAC for its clients, although it has $3 billion invested in hedge funds overall, according to a March securities filing.
In its article, the Journal cited clients who said they were told that Titan would withdraw investments in SAC. The withdrawal is notable because Titan Advisors founder George Fox was one of the early investors in SAC Capital, the Journal said.
Fox did not respond to a voicemail message. A spokesman for SAC Capital said the firm did not have a comment.
SAC is run by billionaire Steven A. Cohen, and came to prominence in the late 1990s for its outsized returns. The firm has posted returns of roughly 30 percent a year since its inception.
But more recently, SAC Capital has garnered attention for employees' run-ins with regulators and criminal authorities investigating insider-trading on Wall Street.
On Friday, ex-SAC fund manager Mathew Martoma was indicted by a grand jury in New York, becoming the seventh former SAC employee to be charged or implicated in insider-trading schemes.

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Wall Street ends lower after "fiscal cliff" setback

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks finished lower on Friday after a Republican plan to avoid the "fiscal cliff" failed to gain sufficient support on Thursday night, draining hopes that a deal would be reached before 2013.
Still, stocks managed to rebound from the day's lows near the end of the session, and for the week, the three major U.S. stock indexes still ended higher, with the S&P 500 gaining 1.2 percent.
Trading was volatile because of waning confidence in the prospect of a deal out of Washington, and in part, as the result of the quarterly expiration of options and futures contracts. The CBOE Volatility Index <.vix> or VIX, the market's favorite barometer of investor anxiety, finished below its session high.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner failed to garner enough votes from even his own party to pass his "Plan B" tax bill late on Thursday. It was the latest setback in negotiations to avoid $600 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts that some say could tip the U.S. economy into recession.
"The failure with Plan B was disappointing, if not terribly surprising, but now there's a real lack of clarity about what will happen, and markets hate that," said Mike Hennessy, managing director of investments for Morgan Creek in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> dropped 120.88 points, or 0.91 percent, to 13,190.84 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> fell 13.54 points, or 0.94 percent, to 1,430.15. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> lost 29.38 points, or 0.96 percent, to 3,021.01.
"Amazingly, this sharp decline today may not actually change the technical picture much - unless the decline gets worse," said Larry McMillan, president of options research firm McMillan Analysis Corp, in a research note.
For the week, the Dow gained 0.4 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 1.7 percent.
On Friday, Herbalife dropped for an eighth straight session. Investor Bill Ackman recently ramped up his campaign against the company. The stock skidded 19.2 percent to $27.27 and has lost more than 35 percent this week.
Plan B, which called for tax increases on those who earn $1 million or more a year, was not going to pass the Democratic-led Senate or win acceptance from the White House anyway. But it exposed the reality that it will be difficult to get Republican support for the more expansive tax increases that President Barack Obama has urged.
Still, the declines of about 1 percent in the three major U.S. stock indexes suggest that investors do not believe the economy will be unduly damaged by the absence of a deal, said Mark Lehmann, president of JMP Securities, in San Francisco.
"You could have easily woken up today and seen the market down 300 or 400 points, and everyone would have said, 'That's telling you this is really dire,'" Lehmann said.
"I think if you get into mid-January and (the talks) keep going like this, you get worried, but I don't think we're going to get there."
Banking shares, which outperform during economic expansion and have led the market on signs of progress on resolving the fiscal impasse, led Friday's declines. Citigroup Inc fell 1.7 percent to $39.49, while Bank of America slid 2 percent to $11.29. The KBW Banks index <.bkx> lost 1.19 percent.
Volatility on Friday was exacerbated in part by "quadruple witching," the quarterly expiration of stock index futures and options, stock options and single stock futures contracts.
About 8.59 billion shares changed hands on major U.S. exchanges, more than the daily average of 6.47 billion daily in 2012, in part because of the "quadruple witching" expiration.
The day's round of data indicated the economy was surprisingly resilient in November; consumer spending rose by the most in three years and a gauge of business investment jumped.
But separate data showed consumer sentiment slumped in December. The S&P Retail Index <.spxrt> fell 1.2 percent.
U.S.-listed shares of Research in Motion sank 22.7 percent to $10.91 after the Canadian company, known as the BlackBerry maker, reported its first-ever decline in its subscriber numbers on Thursday alongside a new fee structure for its high-margin services segment.

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Wall Street Week Ahead: A lump of coal for 'Fiscal Cliff-mas'

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street traders are going to have to pack their tablets and work computers in their holiday luggage after all.
A traditionally quiet week could become hellish for traders as politicians in Washington are likely to fall short of an agreement to deal with $600 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts due to kick in early next year. Many economists forecast that this "fiscal cliff" will push the economy into recession.
Thursday's debacle in the U.S. House of Representatives, where Speaker John Boehner failed to secure passage of his own bill that was meant to pressure President Obama and Senate Democrats, only added to worry that the protracted budget talks will stretch into 2013.
Still, the market remains resilient. Friday's decline on Wall Street, triggered by Boehner's fiasco, was not enough to prevent the S&P 500 from posting its best week in four.
"The markets have been sort of taking this in stride," said Sandy Lincoln, chief market strategist at BMO Asset Management U.S. in Chicago, which has about $38 billion in assets under management.
"The markets still basically believe that something will be done," he said.
If something happens next week, it will come in a short time frame. Markets will be open for a half-day on Christmas Eve, when Congress will not be in session, and will close on Tuesday for Christmas. Wall Street will resume regular stock trading on Wednesday, but volume is expected to be light throughout the rest of the week with scores of market participants away on a holiday break.
For the week, the three major U.S. stock indexes posted gains, with the Dow Jones industrial average up 0.4 percent, the S&P 500 up 1.2 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index up 1.7 percent.
Stocks also have booked solid gains for the year so far, with just five trading sessions left in 2012: The Dow has advanced 8 percent, while the S&P 500 has climbed 13.7 percent and the Nasdaq has jumped 16 percent.
IT COULD GET A LITTLE CRAZY
Equity volumes are expected to fall sharply next week. Last year, daily volume on each of the last five trading days dropped on average by about 49 percent, compared with the rest of 2011 - to just over 4 billion shares a day exchanging hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT in the final five sessions of the year from a 2011 daily average of 7.9 billion.
If the trend repeats, low volumes could generate a spike in volatility as traders keep track of any advance in the cliff talks in Washington.
"I'm guessing it's going to be a low volume week. There's not a whole lot other than the fiscal cliff that is going to continue to take the headlines," said Joe Bell, senior equity analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research, in Cincinnati.
"A lot of people already have a foot out the door, and with the possibility of some market-moving news, you get the possibility of increased volatility."
Economic data would have to be way off the mark to move markets next week. But if the recent trend of better-than-expected economic data holds, stocks will have strong fundamental support that could prevent selling from getting overextended even as the fiscal cliff negotiations grind along.
Small and mid-cap stocks have outperformed their larger peers in the last couple of months, indicating a shift in investor sentiment toward the U.S. economy. The S&P MidCap 400 Index overcame a technical level by confirming its close above 1,000 for a second week.
"We view the outperformance of the mid-caps and the break of that level as a strong sign for the overall market," Schaeffer's Bell said.
"Whenever you have flight to risk, it shows investors are beginning to have more of a risk appetite."
Evidence of that shift could be a spike in shares in the defense sector, expected to take a hit as defense spending is a key component of the budget talks.
The PHLX defense sector index hit a historic high on Thursday, and far outperformed the market on Friday with a dip of just 0.26 percent, while the three major U.S. stock indexes finished the day down about 1 percent.
Following a half-day on Wall Street on Monday ahead of the Christmas holiday, Wednesday will bring the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. It is expected to show a ninth-straight month of gains.
U.S. jobless claims on Thursday are seen roughly in line with the previous week's level, with the forecast at 360,000 new filings for unemployment insurance, compared with the previous week's 361,000.

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A Minute With: Jessica Chastain on "Zero Dark Thirty"

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jessica Chastain carries the weight of starring in one of the year's most anticipated films, "Zero Dark Thirty," about the decade-long hunt and eventual killing of Osama bin Laden.

Critics say Chastain pulls it off seamlessly as "Maya," based on a real-life CIA agent who played a major role in tracking down bin Laden at his hideout in Pakistan.

As the film opens in limited U.S. release on Wednesday, Chastain, who is tipped as a likely best actress Oscar nominee for the role, talked to Reuters about playing a character she could not meet and why the film is an important look at America's role in a dark war.

Q. What did you think when you saw this film finished?

A. "It is a tough one for me to watch, because there is so much responsibility with playing this woman. I find her to be incredible. And I didn't want to change her story or make her a Hollywood version, with a lot of makeup. I didn't want to trivialize what she did ... I want her to like it, but I don't know if she will ever see it."

Q. How did you play someone you had never met?

A. "There was three months of working with (screenplay writer) Mark Boal, doing research, reading lists and talking to people. And then anything I could not solve through research, like what is her favorite candy - 'cause when we are all overseas we have something we do when we are homesick - I had to answer that question myself."

Q. Boal hasn't gone into too much detail about her?

A. "We have to protect her because she is an undercover CIA operative, still working."

Q. What else did you know about her?

A. "When we finished the movie, when the Navy Seal book 'No Easy Day' came out. I raced to go read it, because I was like, 'I need to know if my character is in the book!' And they talk about Jen, the young CIA girl. Well, everything matched up. She was the only one that said 100 percent 'he is there.'... They talked about how she had been on it close to a decade and they were only on it for 40 minutes. They said she was crying on the airplane afterwards."

Q. During filming, were you ever worried about your safety, that the film might be misconstrued?

A. "As an actor you always worry about that. Because you think, maybe someone will see a film and they won't understand the difference between acting and reality. The good thing is, what (director Kathryn Bigelow) and Mark have done, is that they have not made a propaganda film. They tried to make it as authentic as possible and respectful of the actual historical event as they could. That includes showing the intense interrogation techniques that were used. The end of the film - it's not a lot of fist pumping and saying, 'Here is our journey over 10 years and it was so difficult and we finally did it.' It ends actually on a very different note."

Q. Can you elaborate on that?

A. "Well, for me the whole thing is about the arc of this woman. She shows up in the beginning and she is wearing her best suit. She thinks she knows what she is in for, and she is completely out of her element. But over the 10 years, this woman, who has been trained to be unemotional and analytically precise ... we see her struggling to keep it contained for 10 years and as she descends down the rabbit hole of the world she is in.

"So finally at the end when she is asked, 'Where do you want to go?' there is no way to answer that question. ... She has no idea where she belongs, now that this is done. But not only does it speak in terms of that, but the movie ends with that question - where do you want to go? Where do we go now as a country? Where do we go as a society? It is not a movie that ends with an answer, and I find that powerful."

Q. How did you cope with filming the torture scenes?

A. "We filmed in a real Jordanian prison, in the middle of nowhere. The environment wasn't great, especially as a woman.

"They had a lot of trust between the actors, nothing was dangerous or unsafe. There was a lot of discussion to make sure that we weren't doing something that was going to be salacious. They just wanted it to be accurate.

"I know I am playing a character who has trained to be unemotional. But I have spent my entire life allowing myself to be emotional, and allowing myself to feel everything. ... There was actually one day that we were doing a scene, and I said, 'I am sorry' and I just had to walk away, and I just started crying ... it was a very intense experience."

Q. You are a top chance for Oscar nomination. Would that be more or less rewarding for this role?

A. "Because she is still an active member of the CIA and undercover, she can't take credit for what she's done. ... And by making this film, it is my idea as a way of thanking her. It would be very emotional because of that."

Q. You compare your character to getting lost down a CIA rabbit hole. What about your own dizzying rise as an actress?

A. "That's a good question. I do think that next year I need to go somewhere for a month and be in a room by myself and be like, 'Ok, what now Jessica?' But I am nowhere near where she was at the end of this mission."

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"Breakfast at Tiffany's," "Dirty Harry" among U.S. film treasures

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. National Film Registry on Wednesday named 25 films to be preserved as cultural treasures, ranging from Audrey Hepburn's 1961 classic "Breakfast at Tiffany's" to Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" and the sci-fi action movie "The Matrix."

The film list also includes the 1992 female ensemble comedy-drama, "A League of Their Own," directed by Penny Marshall, and "Born Yesterday," which starred Judy Holliday and was released in 1950, and the 1983 holiday classic "A Christmas Story."

The list includes Hollywood classics, documentaries, early films, and independent and experimental motion pictures spanning the years 1897-1999.

It goes back as far "The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Title Fight" - independently produced motion picture recordings of famous boxing contests from 1897 - and to 1914, when "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "The Wishing Ring; An Idyll of Old England" were released.

The films will be preserved at the library's audio-visual conservation campus in Culpeper, Virginia, and eventually transferred into a digital format.

The complete list of films added to the National Film Registry in 2012:

* "3:10 to Yuma" (1957)

* "Anatomy of a Murder" (1959)

* "The Augustas" (1930s-1950s)

* "Born Yesterday" (1950)

* "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961)

* "A Christmas Story" (1983)

* "The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Title Fight" (1897)

* "Dirty Harry" (1971)

* "Hours for Jerome: Parts 1 and 2" (1980-82)

* "The Kidnappers Foil" (1930s-1950s)

* "Kodachrome Color Motion Picture Tests" (1922)

* "A League of Their Own" (1992)

* "The Matrix" (1999)

* "The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair" (1939)

* "One Survivor Remembers" (1995)

* "Parable" (1964)

* "Samsara: Death and Rebirth in Cambodia" (1990)

* "Slacker" (1991)

* "Sons of the Desert" (1933)

* "The Spook Who Sat by the Door" (1937)

* "They Call It Pro Football" (1967)

* "The Times of Harvey Milk" (1984)

* "Two-Lane Blacktop" (1971)

* "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1914)

* "The Wishing Ring; An Idyll of Old England" (1914)

(Reporting By Christine Kearney and Eric Kelsey; Editing by Patricia Reaney, David Brunnstrom and Vicki Allen)

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Angelina Jolie to direct WWII film "Unbroken" for Universal

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Angelina Jolie is in talks to direct the World War II drama "Unbroken" for Universal Pictures, the studio said Tuesday.

The film is based on the Laura Hillenbrand 2010 bestseller "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption," which chronicles the life of Olympic athlete Louis Zamperini, who was captured by the Japanese navy and detained at a prisoner-of-war camp after suffering a near-fatal plane crash and surviving on a raft for 47 days.

"I read Laura Hillenbrand's brilliant book, and I was so moved by Louie Zamperini's heroic story, I immediately began to fight for the opportunity to make this film," Jolie said in a statement. "Louie is a true hero and a man of immense humanity, faith and courage. I am deeply honored to have the chance to tell his inspiring story."

The "Salt" actress made her directorial debut with last year's war drama "In the Land of Blood and Honey."

"Les Misérables" writer William Nicholson wrote the latest draft for the project. An earlier draft was written by Richard LaGravanese ("P.S. I Love You"). Matthew Baer ("The Replacement Killers") and Erwin Stoff ("The Blind Side") are producing, with Mick Garris executive-producing.

Walden Media's chief executive officer Michael Bostick and senior vice president of production Amanda Morgan-Palmer will oversee the project on behalf of Walden Media, which is co-financing and co-producing. Universal co-president of production Peter Cramer and vice president of production Kristin Lowe will handle oversight for Universal.

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"Game of Thrones," "Mad Men" among nominees for Cinematographers awards

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "Mad Men," "Game of Thrones," "American Horror Story," "Hatfields & McCoys" and "The New Normal" are among the television programs whose cinematography has been honored by the American Society of Cinematographers, which announced its TV nominees on Wednesday.

The ASC, an invitation-only organization of cinematographers with a membership of 300 active members and more than 150 associate members, announced 15 nominations in three categories for the 27th Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography.

Michael Goi, who had been nominated twice previously, received nominations in two different categories, one for "American Horror Story: Asylum" and one for "The New Normal."

A number of the other nominees are previous ASC nominees or winners. In the one-hour episodic TV category, David Moxness ("Fringe") and David Stockton ("Alcatraz") are past winners, and Chris Manley ("Mad Men") and Kramer Morgenthau ("Game of Thrones," above) are now four-time nominees.

In the half-hour episodic TV category, Peter Levy ("House of Lies") and Michael Price ("Happy Endings") are previous nominees.

Fox led all networks with three nominations, followed by FX, HBO and Cinemax with two each.

Nominations in the ASC's feature-film category will be announced on January 9. Winners will be announced at the ASC Awards on February 10 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in the Hollywood & Highland Center.

The nominees:

One-hour Episodic Television Series:

Balazs Bolygo, HSC for "Hunted" (episode "Mort")

Chris Manley, ASC for "Mad Men" ("The Phantom")

Kramer Morgenthau, ASC for "Game of Thrones" ("The North Remembers")

David Moxness, CSC, ASC for "Fringe" ("Letters of Transit")

Mike Spragg for "Strike Back" (Episode 11)

David Stockton, ASC for "Alcatraz" (Pilot)

Television Movie/Miniseries:

Michael Goi, ASC for "American Horror Story: Asylum" ("I am Anne Frank: Part 2")

Florian Hoffmeister for the Masterpiece presentation of "Great Expectations"

Arthur Reinhart for "Hatfields & McCoys"

Rogier Stoffers, ASC for "Hemingway & Gellhorn"

Half-hour Episodic Series:

Ken Glassing for "Ben and Kate" ("Guitar Face")

Michael Goi, ASC for "The New Normal" ("Pilot")

Peter Levy, ASC for "House of Lies" ("Gods of Dangerous Financial Instruments")

Bradford Lipson for "Wilfred" ("Truth")

Michael Price for "Happy Endings" ("Four Weddings and a

Funeral (Minus Three Weddings and One Funeral)"

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"Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry," "Bully" first theatrical releases to win duPont awards

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Two documentary films were among the 14 winners of the 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, making them the first theatrical releases to be honored with the prize. USA Today also won its first duPont award.

"Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry," Alison Klayman's profile of the Chinese artist-activist, and Emmy-winning filmmaker Lee Hirsch's tale of schoolyard torment, "Bully," won alongside reporting from Current TV, CBS News, NPR, PBS's "Frontline" and USA Today.

USA Today was honored for multimedia reporting on abandoned lead factories, and NPR's "StoryCorps" will win its first silver baton.

Five awards will go to local television and radio stations: KCET in Southern California, KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, WVUE-TV in New Orleans, Detroit's WXYZ-TV and partnerships with WHYY and NPR.

"This exceptional group of journalists represents the best of broadcast, documentary and digital news reporting today," Bill Wheatley, the outgoing duPont Jury chair and the former executive vice president of NBC News, said in a statement. "These groundbreaking stories set the standard for excellent reporting; journalists gained access and insight into critical issues in the public interest, and they are telling these important stories in new ways."

Christiane Amanpour, CNN's chief international correspondent and a global affairs anchor for ABC News will present the awards with CBS News's Byron Pitts on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 at Columbia's Low Memorial Library.

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