• Jeffrey Wells reports from a MOMA Q&A with “127 Hours” star James Franco. [Hollywood Elsewhere]
• Amy Kaufman talks with “Conviction” star Hilary Swank. [Los Angeles Times]
• Add Polaroid photography to Julian Schnabel’s list of artistic pursuits. [The Guardian]
• Stephen Frears on “Tamara Drewe” and the lure of comic books. [Speakeasy]
• In case you missed it, Andrew O’Hehir slammed “Secretariat” last week as a film for Tea Party America. [Salon]
• Roger Ebert, a big defender of the films, took him to task on it. [Chicago Sun-Times]
• And O’Hehir shot right back. [Salon]
• While Disney spins the film’s box office performance this weekend. [Hollywood Reporter]
• Nikki Finke announces what we all knew was coming: a costly print endeavor with Oscar season supplements aimed at selling high-dollar ads. [Deadline]
• On 10-10-10, a round up of the 10 best films of 2010 that you might have missed. [24 Frames]
• The Gurus o’ Gold chime in once more before weekly updating begins next month. [Movie City News]
[Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures]
Comments
12 responses to “10/11 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Franco at MOMA, Schnabel’s Polaroids, O’Hehir and Ebert fight to the death”
I think O’Hehir calling it a nazi propaganda film was a worse insult than saying its a tea party film, but whatever.
Tomato, tomahto.
Kris, I was looking at your prediction updates, and I noticed that the most notable addition was “The Way Back” in several categories, except either of the screenplay categories. Did you not know which one it would fall into, or do you just think that’s not one of its strongest areas?
It’s adapted, I just don’t think the script is a strong point. It’s all about direction and performance.
o’hehir is making a mistake when he thinks horse owners are meant to typify america. no one thinks they are “regular people”
Well Kris, not a single film has gone on to win Best Picture that hasn’t had a screenplay nomination. That’s the main reason “Avatar” didn’t have a chance.
Duncan: Not true. See “The Sound of Music” and, of course, “Titanic.”
“Titanic” was a freak of nature, no offense to anyone who enjoys it. I’ll give you “The Sound of Music”, but that was fifty years ago. Still, I doubt that it will happen this year. 2 out of 82 doesn’t put the odds on its side.
Is Kris claiming “The Way Back” will win?
What Glenn said. I think it COULD, with a savvy campaign, but I’m certainly not calling it this way or that yet. It’s a process.
Duncan: A simple “my mistake” would have sufficed ;)
Anyway, by your reasoning, “Avatar” was also a “freak of nature” — and yes, it did have a chance of winning. There are simply no set rules, as convenient as that would make things.
PS. Since you obviously like stats (what Oscar-watcher doesn’t?), the accurate figure is 7 out of 82 — there are several other exceptions from earlier in Academy history, though obviously it doesn’t make much difference.
I’m not saying it won’t get nominated, as I’m pretty sure that it will since it’s now in the race. I’m simply saying that it has much less of a chance of winning without a screenplay nod than with one.
Although Guy, I kind of chuckled a bit when you mentioned “Avatar”, because I still am not sure what everybody saw in the film beyond the visuals. Still, thank you for correcting my false assumption. My mistake.