• The Academy announces 248 feature films eligible for this year’s Best Picture Oscar. [Oscars.org]
• James Franco’s reps advised him against hosting the Oscars (naturally). [Awards Campaign]
• Mike Fleming, meanwhile, chats with Franco’s co-host (and “Love & Other Drugs” star) Anne Hathaway, [Deadline]
The London Film Critics’ Circle can always be relied upon to throw a couple of wild cards into a nominee list of otherwise endlessly repeated names — demonstrating at least some awareness of life outside Oscar season. So it is this year, as their Best Director category is filled by Fincher, Aronofsky, Nolan, the Coens… and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the Thai auteur behind Palme d’Or champ “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.”
Similarly, “Carlos” powerhouse Edgar Ramirez crashes the otherwise familiar Best Actor lineup of Bridges, Eisenberg, Gosling and Firth. (Note: no James Franco, and a solitary Best British Film nod for “127 Hours,” suggesting that the film’s stock may be falling on this side of the pond too.)
For the most part, it’s business as usual. “Another Year” and “The King’s Speech” top the list with six nominations apiece, though it’s interesting to see that neither film snagged a Best Director nod. (Indeed, five of “Another Year”‘s bids come in the performance categories — nice to see people recognizing that the film’s ensemble extends beyond Lesley Manville.)
I had a bad feeling Carter Burwell’s work in “True Grit” was going to get the axe from a consistently dubious music branch, and so it has. Along with three other hopefuls.
Variety is reporting that Burwell’s score and Clint Mansell’s for “Black Swan” were nixed due to being overwhelmed by pre-existing music (19th century hymns with the former, Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” with the latter). Additionally, the scores from Burwell on “The Kids Are All Right” and Michael Brook “The Fighter” got the boot because of an abundance of songs.
We’ve been expecting some kind of ruling on this year’s crop of contenders. It’s a shame, as always, that well-regarded original material has to be penalized due to rules like this, but it’s their game and they’ll play it how they want. Thursday we’ll feature an interview with Burwell and you can hear the thought process that went into the score for “True Grit.” Until then, chew on this.
[Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures]
I should have posted this this weekend but I totally forgot, so apologies. I’ve had my say on “The Fighter” out of AFI Fest and there has been plenty of discussion on it here and there since. But it hit theaters nationwide Friday and many of you got a chance to take a look, so let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Just as a reminder that there are bigger injustices going on in the film world than so-and-so missing out on an Oscar nomination. I can’t even get my head round this. Depriving one of the world’s master filmmakers of the right to practise his art for two whole decades? What a waste. It makes six years in jail seem the lesser punishment. From Yahoo! News:
Celebrated Iranian filmmaker and vocal backer of the opposition movement, Jafar Panahi, has been handed six years in jail and banned from making films and leaving Iran for 20 years, his lawyer said Monday.
“Mr. Panahi has been sentenced to six years in jail on a charge of (participating) in a gathering and carrying out propaganda against the system,” Farideh Gheirat told ISNA news agency.
“His social rights, which include a ban on making movies, writing scripts, foreign travel and giving interviews to domestic and foreign media, have been taken away for 20 years.”
More here. If you’re not sure what we’re about to lose, find yourself a copy of “Crimson Gold” and weep.
[Photo: Passionforcinema.com]
(In case you somehow need this stated explicitly, this is fan made and in no way connected to Sony.)
There’s some fuzzy Oscar reasoning in this Guardian piece on Paramount’s two-pronged stab at the Best Picture race, but the essential point it makes is an interesting one: with “True Grit” having been produced in-house and “The Fighter” something of an adopted son for the studio, does Paramount have a favorite child in this race?
Writer Jeremy Kay believes they do, and in the light of the precursors thus far, isn’t sure they picked the right one:
While [The Fighter’s] $12.2m gross is nothing to write home about from 2,503 theatres, it’s no disgrace either – especially when you consider Paramount hasn’t thrown as many marketing dollars behind The Fighter as it has invested in True Grit. That’s because the studio’s top brass made an early bet that True Grit, a Paramount movie, would ultimately be more successful than The Fighter, which the studio is distributing for a fee on behalf of the movie’s backers Relativity Media.
• PR experts tell Kim Masters that critical pans of “The Tourist” could make Angelina Jolie’s support for her Golden Globe nomination in the form of attending the ceremony “potentially embarrassing.” [Hollywood Reporter]
• Guy Adams, meanwhile, takes aim at the HFPA’s susceptibility to bribery this year. [The Independent]
• The 25 best performances from 2010 that won’t win Oscars. [Vulture]
We’ve featured a couple of these 2010 video summaries already, but reader Lesley Lui submitted this one so modestly that I figured another one couldn’t do any harm. Bonus points for featuring “Fish Tank” right upfront.
Family gathering insanity for me today, but here’s the chart for you to discuss:
• Kris listed his 10 favorite films of 2010 in black-and-white, later adding his dream Oscar ballot and winners list.
• The critics’ award beat turned into a “Social Network” landslide, as New York, Los Angeles, Boston and many, many other groups lined up behind the film.
• Away from the critics’ circuit, Team Fincher didn’t have it all their own way, as “The King’s Speech” led a widely derided list of Golden Globe nominees.
• When it was the Screen Actors’ Guild’s turn to announce their nominees, however, the royal biopic had to settle for sharing the lead with “The Fighter.”
Well, here’s an awards announcement a million miles away from “The Social Network” — the Louis Delluc Prize, the single most prestigious award in French cinema. (Yes, loftier than the César Awards.) And I do mean “single”: awarded to one film from a shortlist of eight by a jury of French journalists and industry types, it’s one of the simpler ceremonies on the block.
While last year’s award went to the ubiquitous crossover hit “A Prophet,” this year’s jury (headed by Cannes festival president Gilles Jacob) threw a slight curveball: the award was handed this morning to Raul Ruiz’s epic Portuguese-French production “Mysteries of Lisbon,” a dreamy 272-minute period puzzle piece that I was thoroughly bewitched by at the London Film Festival. (Rebecca Zlotowski’s “Belle Epine” received debut filmmaker honors.)
The film beat out one hell of a heavyweight shortlist, listed after the cut.
Today kicks off the week of The Dude as “TRON Legacy” hits theaters nationwide. I’ve had my say, but I’d love to hear what you guys think. Come on back here and give us your take when/if you get around to it this weekend or over the holiday.
This time last year, we featured a nifty video summation of 2009 in film by one Zack Young, and today, he’s been good enough to hook us up with the 2010 edition. Nice work, Zack.
The week, and with it, the bulk of my 2010 coverage, draws to a close today with a look at the best of the best. I’m offering up a personal list of superlatives, including most Oscar categories and some other fun fields thrown in for good measure. A tradition at this point.
There will be plenty going on next week, though, despite travel and the holidays. As always, we’ll be at your disposal. But allow me to put a tidy bow on the year here and keep forging ahead…
Best Picture
“Exit Through the Gift Shop”
Best Director
Mike Leigh, “Another Year”