In Contention

Category: Daily

  • Robert De Niro to head Cannes jury

    Sure, that Cecil B. DeMille Award at the upcoming Golden Globes is nice enough, but this is the greater honour. Robert De Niro has been selected as the president of the competition jury at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in May — the third time this most European of festivals has tapped an American for the job in four years. (Tim Burton did the honors last year, Sean Penn in 2008.)

    For the past two years, the eventual Palme d’Or winner has seemingly, if not necessarily, borne the fingerprints of the jury president. Isabelle Huppert handed the prize to her friend and collaborator Michael Haneke in 2009 (and took a lot less stick for it than Quentin Tarantino did for rewarding his ex at Venice last year).

    Burton’s reign, meanwhile, culminated in the unusual occurrence of a fantasy film (“Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives”) taking the gold. De Niro somehow seems likely to wield a less assertive stamp on the proceedings, though you never know until the post-fest gossip starts leaking out.

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  • ‘Shutter Island,’ ‘Social Network’ surprise with Cinema Audio Society, ‘TRON’ snubbed

    The immediately striking thing about this year’s slate of nominees from the Cinema Audio Society (which honors sound mixing) is the appearance of “Shutter Island.” This is the film’s second below-the-line guild citation in as many days (following an Art Directors Guild nomination yesterday).

    If it had managed a PGA nomination earlier this week, I’d be saying, “Watch out.”  But the crafts are what were going to help this film along, if anything.  Just remember, there’s a 10th Best Picture slot somewhat up for grabs and there is always the “steak eaters” theory (however overstressed) to consider.  People in the industry do like the film, though maybe for its parts more than their sum.

    The second thing that’s striking is “The Social Network” making it in.  Though that shouldn’t be too unexpected.  It’s an amazing mix from veteran craftsmen.  But could this be the “Finding Neverland” or “Babel” of this year’s slate?  It’s possible.  (Check back later this morning for more on that as today’s Tech Support interview includes sound mixers Ren Klyce and Michael Semanick.)

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  • Life versus art in ‘The Fighter’

    You know by now how much I love “The Fighter” for its odd, jangly fusion of heightened realism and rah-rah studio formula, so it’s never struck me as particularly important how fact-faithful it remains in striking the balance. Still, I rather liked this video, which breaks down not only the liberties the film takes with the truth — but the unexpected loyalties too. As someone who knows slightly less about boxing than I do about aeronautical engineering, I was impressed to note the attention to physical detail in Mark Wahlberg’s under-appreciated performance. (Thanks to Craig Skinner for the link.)

    Also worth passing along is the SoundWorks Collection profile of the film. Have a look at that after the jump.

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  • ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ contest winner(s)!

    First a big thank you to everyone who participated in Monday’s “How to Train Your Dragon” haiku contest. Moving right along here on clearing out my office of the season’s swag!

    There were a number of great entries, but I ultimately settled on Rob T.’s eloquent stab:

    Human and dragon–
    Pray tell, who is the trainer
    And who is the trained?

    However, I also had a soft spot in my heart for what forts cooked up, so I totally have to cough up a consolation prize for that one…

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  • 1/6 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Roberts stumps for Bardem, ‘Valentine’ as class commentary, Affleck’s ‘Town’ inspirations

    • Julia Roberts’s Oscar plea for”Biutiful” star Javier Bardem. [Inside Movies]

    • Patrick Goldstein on “Blue Valentine” as a meditation on the class divide. [The Big Picture]

    • Ben Affleck on “The Friends of Eddie Coyle,” “Amores Perros,” “Breaking Away” and “Heat” as inspirations for “The Town.” [The Envelope]

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  • Taking questions for Oscar Talk

    You know the drill.  Rifle off your query and we’ll try to address a few.  PLEASE KEEP IT TO ONE QUESTION, and as always, the fresher the better.  Anything already covered extensively will likely be avoided.

  • ‘Ghost Writer’ surprises as one of five USC Scripter finalists

    The USC Libraries Scripter Award is an annual honor (now in its 23rd year) in recognition of “the best adaptation of the printed word into film.” It is one of the more unique awards along the circuit as it is not only awarded to the screenwriter but the source material’s author, as well.

    Past winners have included “Schindler’s List,” “The Shawshank Redemption” and “No Country for Old Men,” obvious picks in their respective years. But the nature of the award has also generally allowed for some outside-the-box thinking, witnessed in nominations for “Get Shorty,” “The Bourne Supremacy” and “Iron Man,” among others over the years.

    A few years ago the rules for eligibility were extended to include screenplays based on pieces of journalism, comic books and even other screenplays. This is why, it should be noted, that “Toy Story 3” is not eligible for the honor this year: It is a screenplay based on separately created characters rather than the written word.  Also not eligible are foreign language films.

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  • ‘Scott Pilgrim,’ ‘Hereafter’ make visual effects bake-off

    As we await the USC Scripter finalists (which should drop any minute), I should pass along the Academy’s bake-off finalists in the Best Visual Effects category.

    Last month the field was narrowed down to 15 titles. Today, seven titles remain, from which five nominees will be selected in a bake-off (which is an odd extra step now, given that the ultimate nominations field was expanded to five this year). So take two off of the following list:

    “Alice in Wonderland”
    “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1”
    “Hereafter”
    “Inception”
    “Iron Man 2    ”
    “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”
    “TRON Legacy”

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  • Weekly predictions update

    As you may have noticed, my long-delayed Best of 2010 feature went up earlier today, and I’ve been enjoying your generous response thus far. It does, however, come in lieu of this week’s Long Shot column: there are only so many hours in the day, and frankly, it’s getting increasingly difficult to find any fresh angle on a race that’s virtually congealing before our eyes.

    This week’s guild announcements thus far certainly haven’t moved the needle much one way or the other — but they might have closed a couple of remote avenues. Though I haven’t a column to accompany them today, I did do some minor tidying and rearranging of furniture on my predictions page.

    I find myself drifting a little closer to the consensus each week, though I’m clinging to my long-held hunch that “Winter’s Bone” will endure, and even surprise, in a couple of major categories, while many of the technical categories remain intriguingly wobbly. (Where are the Best Costume Design fillers? You just know that field is going to turn up something weird.)

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  • For your consideration: ‘Jackass 3D’

    Hey, toldja!  Check out the full FYC ad, courtesy of Cinematical, after the jump.

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  • Robert Duvall sticks his foot in it

    Sony Pictures Classics was smart enough to recognize that Robert Duvall could use his hands and feet in cement over at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, a generally political honor (much like stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame) that only happens when someone thinks it’s worth it to rally the money together.

    Well, a bubble-contending Best Actor hopeful (for “Get Low”) is a great cause.  But that shouldn’t take away from the fact that Duvall is — it goes without saying — a legend highly deserving of this kind of thing.

    Also smart, of course, was inviting folks like me (and Steve Pond, Anne Thompson, etc.).  Mission accomplished: I’m writing about it.  But it really was a lovely afternoon.  And today, it turns out, is Duvall’s 80th birthday.  The crowd of journalists and average joes (these are generally open to public observation) all joined together in a chorus singing “Happy Birthday” to the actor after the deed was done.

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  • Watching and waiting: Guy’s best and worst of 2010

    What kind of year was 2010 at the movies? You tell me. It’s virtually impossible to find one yardstick to measure 365 days of cinema for a collective audience whose interests seem ever more segregated.

    If your film interests are covered largely by the multiplex, chances are 2010 was an unusually unrewarding year for you, challenging even Hollywood’s standard quota of déjà vu — unless, of course, you’re an animation fiend, in which case there was a broad enough range of carefully crafted work to keep you happy.

    If you tend to bypass the mall on your way to the arthouse, however, there was any amount of adventurous indie and world cinema, both newly unveiled and backlogged from previous years, to chew on — if, of course, you’re privileged enough to live in a regrettably narrow radius. And if you’re an Academy voter sifting through the crop of generously campaigned prestige fare, 2010 looks rather like the usual, only a little more so.

    For me, 2010 was both immeasurably improved and somewhat complicated by the festival circuit — access to which is a luxury I shall never take for granted, but also one that inevitably skews my sense of how the film yearbook reads in the real world. When you’ve had access to most of the big-ticket winter warmers by early autumn, and when the likes of Cannes afford you a head start of many months or even years on certain international art films, things rather lose their shape.

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  • Updates to The Circuit

    We’re waiting the USC Scripter finalists announcement today, but for now, the Vancouver Film Critics Circle has announced a slate of nominees, while more importantly, the Art Directors Guild has spoken up with its picks in three categories.

  • 1/5 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Paltrow and “singer-as-Oscar-bait,” 80 years of THR, questioning Bening’s, er, overdueness

    • Larry Getlen on Gwyneth Paltrow in “Country Strong” and the “singer-as-Oscar-bait phenomenon.” [New York Post]

    • The this year’s Oscar hopefuls who got their starts as child actors. [Variety]

    • In celebrating THR’s 80th anniversary, Todd McCarthy picks the 80 greatest Hollywood moments. [Hollywood Reporter]

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  • FIRST-HALF FYC: Best Director

    With precisely three weeks to go until Oscar nomination morning, we continue to flag up worthy work from 2010’s first half, much of it lost (or, indeed, never present) amid the crush of more recent awards contenders. You know the January-to-June drill by now: beyond that, we can get as far-fetched as we like.

    I certainly did this week, as my field of Best Director suggestions betrays the extent to which foreign arthouse fare rules the quality ranks in the early months of the year, while American studios save their prize ponies for summer. For this ballot to pan out, the Academy would have to overcome their usual resistance to subtitles several times over, while making history twice by nominating two women and a documentary filmmaker. Not much to ask, is it?

    Speaking of women, by the way, it bears repeating that opening months of the year were strong ones for female filmmakers: between the likes of Debra Granik, Jessica Hausner and Mia Hansen-Løve, all of whom were closely considered, I could have cheerfully assembled a ladies-only field.

    Finally, before I get into my picks, I should add that while many (certainly the Academy itself, on recent form) see the Best Picture and Director categories as interchangeable, I don’t quite work that way — as often as they inevitably overlap, sometimes a director’s formal ambition and achievement burns a little brighter than the whole.

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  • Sony beefs up ‘Social Network’ site

    Nifty making-of stuff and more at 500millionfriends.com.

  • ‘Never Let Me Go’ tops London Evening Standard noms

    The London Evening Standard Awards, a particularly bijou set of critics’ honors reserved for British titles and talent, tend to swerve a little left of the expected — chosen as they are by a jury of six disparate, but equally opinionated, critics. So it is this year: obviously “The King’s Speech” and “Another Year” feature heavily, but the list is peppered with pleasing examples of independent thinking.

    Indeed, this jury has given a sharp reprimand to the recent BIFA Awards by including Peter Mullan’s lavishly praised indie “Neds” in their Best Film lineup, a highly diverse selection that also includes Sylvain Chomet’s animated wonder “The Illusionist” (yay), Matthew Vaughan’s divisive comic adaptation “Kick-Ass” (boo) and Clio Barnard’s performance-documentary hybrid “The Arbor.”

    Frozen out in the Oscar race, “Never Let Me Go” nonetheless had a good day here with a leading five nods, thanks largely to the jury’s regard for all three of its leads.

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  • Mo’Nique to join Sherak in announcing Oscar nominees

    Just when we thought Mo’Nique was done with the season, she’s baaaack.  The press release, in part:

    Nominations for the 83rd Academy Awards® will be announced on Tuesday, January 25, by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak and Oscar-winning actress and Academy member Mo’Nique.

    Sherak and Mo’Nique will unveil the nominations in 10 of the 24 categories at a 5:30 a.m. news conference at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, where hundreds of media representatives from around the world will be gathered. Nominations information for all categories will be distributed simultaneously to news media in attendance and via the Internet on the official Academy Awards website, www.oscar.com.