Features







2007-08 Oscar Calendar



[Monday, December 3, 2007]

Official Screen Credits
Forms Due.


[Wednesday, December 26, 2007]

Nominations ballots mailed.


[Saturday, January 12, 2008]

Nominations polls close
5 p.m. PST.


[Tuesday, January 22, 2008]

Nominations announced
5:30 a.m. PST
Samuel Goldwyn Theater


[Wednesday, January 30, 2008]

Final ballots mailed.


[Monday, February 4, 2008]

Nominees Luncheon


[Saturday, February 9, 2008]

Scientific and Technical
Awards Dinner


[Tuesday, February 19, 2008]

Final polls close 5 p.m. PST.


[Sunday, February 24, 2008]

79th Annual
Academy Awards Presentation
Kodak Theatre

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“Arctic Tale” (***)

arctic1.jpg


“Arctic Tale” is cute. Of that we can all rest assured. It’s a little difficult to open a film with a snuggly baby polar bear poking her head out of a snow cave, lay exaggerated “sniffing” effects over the soundtrack and not grab your audience’s warm spot off the bat. But while Sarah Robertson’s National Geographic Redux documentary is an interesting exploration into the arctic environment, as well as a not-so-subtle mandate against global warming, it is also much more revealing in its editorial manipulations than, say, “March of the Penguins.”


It’s too simple to mention that the film might have been as easily suited for the small screen, but it’s true. However, it goes without saying that where a film is better suited for distribution shouldn’t play for or against its successes and failures as a work of visual storytelling. So as such, “Arctic Tale” is something of a minor triumph.

Set in the arctic nether regions, a world losing its state of normalcy by the day, the film’s narrative begins by following the life of a newborn polar cub, Nanu. Awakening to the world outside her mother’s birthing cave, Nanu, along with her mother and brother, venture out into the tundra for food. We learn a lot, of course, through Queen Latifah’s (perhaps too) sassy narration. Nanu’s mother hasn’t eaten in six months. She hunts baby walrus for nourishment that will become milk for her young. The only animal she has to fear is a male polar bear that, if given the opportunity, will attack her cubs.


arctic2.jpg


To parallel this narrative is the story of a newborn walrus, Seala, as well as her mother, her “auntie” and a massive family of walruses that live, eat, digest, swim and sleep as a family, “all up in each other’s business.” Like I said – sassy narration. Once again, there is information aplenty. Walruses eat clams, believe it or not. They harvest them thousands at a time and look for visual landmarks that indicate harvesting spots along the ocean floor. And they seemingly spend their entire day sunbathing, otherwise. Well, when avoiding starved polar bears.


From here the filmmakers steer the yarn toward the environmental dangers facing the animals. Each passing year thins the ice considerably, leaving animals in some cases stranded with the limited food supply they already have in a given area. The point Al Gore made in “An Inconvenient Truth” about polar bears having to swim hundreds of miles just to reach ice suitable for walking is amplified ten-fold here.


Polar bears have to search farther and farther for a food supply that is itself forced abroad. Animals that specialize in hunting food hidden beneath the ice are now faced with prey well aware of their approach, given the conditions of the ice. Global warming is bad, m’kay?


arctic3.jpg


All of this is laid out in a rather simple, expected manner. The filmmakers cleverly edited footage together to drive the narrative forward in linear terms. And of course there’s always Queen Latifah’s audible guidance throughout. Nanu and Seala separately grow older in their family environments. Tragedy strikes each equally and the survival instincts put on display really sting the heart. Nature is an evil bitch, but that’s not the point with which the film wishes to clobber you over the head.


The point – in this, Paramount Classics’ perennial “green” film, I suppose – is that humans are affecting the environment of species that have dominated the indicated regions for thousands of years. If you buy the argument (I do), human behavior has brought on drastically shifting conditions that could force extinction onto the arctic agenda before long.


That is where “Arctic Tale” at least seemingly transcends the boundaries of a simple cut-and-paste program you’d catch on a Sunday afternoon on the National Geographic Channel. There is a greater purpose to presenting the plight of the polar bears and walruses. Its simplicity might be its greatest attribute in the final analysis. Having a bunch of kids drive it home over the credits might have been a bit unnecessary, but this one isn’t trying to win awards for nuance. In an ever changing world, indeed in a quickly sliding environmental society, perhaps we’ve charged far past the point of nuance altogether.

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2008 Year in Advance Predictions


UPDATED: 2/25/2008





Main Charts | Tech Charts



[Motion Picture]

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

“Doubt”

“Frost/Nixon”

“Revolutionary Road”

“The Soloist”



[Directing]

David Fincher
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

Ron Howard
“Frost/Nixon”

Gus Van Sant
“Milk”

Sam Mendes
“Revolutionary Road”

Joe Wright
“The Soloist”



[Actor in a Leading Role]

Benicio Del Toro
“The Argentine”

Jamie Foxx
“The Soloist”

Frank Langella
“Frost/Nixon”

Sean Penn
“Milk”

Brad Pitt
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”



[Actress in a Leading Role]

Vera Farmiga
“Nothing But the Truth”

Angelina Jolie
“Changeling”

Julianne Moore
“Blindness”

Meryl Streep
“Doubt”

Kate Winslet
“Revolutionary Road”



[Actor in a Supporting Role]

Josh Brolin
“Milk”

Russell Crowe
“Body of Lies”

Robert Downey, Jr.
“The Soloist”

Heath Ledger
“The Dark Knight”

Michael Sheen
“Frost/Nixon”



[Actress in a Supporting Role]

Amy Adams
“Doubt”

Kathy Bates
“Revolutionary Road”

Cate Blanchett
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

Catherine Keener
“The Soloist”

Carice van Houten
“Body of Lies”



[Writing, Adapted Screenplay]

“Body of Lies”

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

“Doubt”

“Frost/Nixon”

“Revolutionary Road”



[Writing, Original Screenplay]

“Changeling”

“Hamlet 2”

“Milk”

“The Soloist”

“WALL·E”



[Art Direction]

“Australia”

“Defiance”

“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom
of the Crystal Skull”

“Red Cliff”

“Revolutionary Road”



[Cinematography]

“Australia”

“The Dark Knight”

“Defiance”

“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom
of the Crystal Skull”

“Revolutionary Road”



[Costume Design]

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

“Doubt”

“The Other Boleyn Girl”

“Red Cliff”

“Revolutionary Road”



[Film Editing]

“Body of Lies”

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

“Defiance”

“Frost/Nixon”

“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom
of the Crystal Skull”



[Makeup]

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

“The Dark Knight”

“Red Cliff”



[Music, Original Score]

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom
of the Crystal Skull”

“The Soloist”

“Revolutionary Road”

“WALL·E”



[Music, Original Song]

coming soon



[Sound Editing]

“Defiance”

“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom
of the Crystal Skull”

“Iron Man”

“Speed Racer”

“WALL·E”



[Sound Mixing]

“Defiance”

“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom
of the Crystal Skull”

“Cloverfield”

“The Chronicles of Narnia:
Prince Caspian”

“WALL·E”



[Visual Effects]

“The Chronicles of Narnia:
Prince Caspian”

“The Incredible Hulk”

“Iron Man”



[Animated Feature Film]

“9”

“Kung Fu Panda”

“WALL·E”



[Foreign Language Film]

coming soon



[Documentary, Features]

coming soon



[Documentary, Short Subjects]

coming soon



[Short Film, Animated]

coming soon



[Short Film, Live Action]

coming soon