The Long Shot: Searching for sleepers in the Oscar guessing game

Posted by · 9:34 am · June 11th, 2012

As early Oscar charts hype up juggernauts like “Lincoln” and “Les Misérables,” what’s this year’s little engine that could?

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The 2011-2012 Film Awards Circuit

Posted by · 11:46 am · February 28th, 2012

Charting the winners and losers of the year’s precursor circuit.

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Oscar Guide 2011: Best Picture

Posted by · 7:43 am · February 25th, 2012

The 2011 Oscar Guide has finally reached its destination: the nine-film Best Picture category, which saw its biggest surprise in the very fact that it stretched to that many nominees. It became somewhat obvious down the stretch that five films were assured a spot, with another highly likely. The extraneous possibilities seemed to number no more than three or four, but two of them got in.

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Off the Carpet: We won't get another hero

Posted by · 10:44 am · February 20th, 2012

Oscar season heads into the home stretch with no real surprises in sight.

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Round-up: Enough about Max von Sydow's burst of applause, already!

Posted by · 7:34 am · February 9th, 2012

In today’s round-up, yet another journalist gloms onto the amount of applause for Max von Sydow at Monday’s Nominees Luncheon as an indicator of something, Todd McCarthy critiques the year in movie music and some are declaring David Gordon Green “back” with that “Halftime in America” Super Bowl spot.

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Oscar Guide 2011: Best Supporting Actor

Posted by · 10:29 am · February 6th, 2012

This year’s Best Supporting Actor race seemed to settle in rather early on. The eventual five nominees were all considered formidable as far back as September and nothing really came along to significantly alter the landscape. The one “surprise” came in the form of a contender popping up who had been expected to fall the way of his film. Well, ultimately he did.

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'Extremely Loud' star Max Von Sydow talks inhabiting the silent Renter in this new featurette

Posted by · 11:30 am · February 4th, 2012

Yesterday I sat down with “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” star and Oscar nominee Max Von Sydow for about a half hour to talk about this and that but mostly his and his film’s surprising Academy goodwill. Warner Bros. has him in town for a few days for some TV here, some radio there, plenty of interview opportunities and a fair share of post-screening Q&As. Perhaps they smell a window of opportunity.

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Oscar Talk: Ep. 80 — The runaway 'Artist' train and Santa Barbara tributes

Posted by · 7:58 am · February 3rd, 2012

In this week’s podcast, Kris and Anne discuss the continued dominance of “The Artist” this season, the tribute circuit at Santa Barbara fest and the release of “The Grey,” among other things.

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Round-up: Sundance tames the 'Beasts'

Posted by · 8:20 am · January 30th, 2012

Also: Jean Dujardin sings, and the ‘post-macho world’ of ‘The Descendants’

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Stuck in the middle with you: thoughts on the Oscar nominations

Posted by · 2:28 pm · January 24th, 2012

If it’s hard to settle on one emotional response to this year’s Academy Award nominations, that could be the result of the Academy’s own split instincts.

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Oscar Talk: Ep. 79 — Special Edition! — Thoughts on the the 2011 Oscar nominations

Posted by · 12:14 pm · January 24th, 2012

In this week’s podcast Kris and Anne are joined by Guy Lodge to discuss this morning’s Oscar nominations and offer up predictions in each category.

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The Lists: Top 10 things we learned about the Academy today

Posted by · 9:13 am · January 24th, 2012

It’s been a busy morning. The nominees are out. About a thousand different variations of “it’s humbling and exciting” are coming through from the various contenders. And all eyes are fixing on February 26. But as we transition into phase two of the 2011-2012 film awards season, it’s worth it to pause and consider what we might have learned today.

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'Hugo' leads with 11 Oscar nominations, 'War Horse' in, 'Dragon Tattoo' out

Posted by · 4:15 am · January 24th, 2012

The nominees are in and the surprises are few and far between, in my opinion (though others seem to be picking their jaws up off the floor this morning). As indicated yesterday, “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” caught fire with voters down the stretch and was very much on their lips. The film turned up in the nine-film Best Picture category today, despite being critically disassembled, and that was pretty much the only eyebrow-raiser of the major categories. The film only showed up in one other category: Best Supporting Actor for Max von Sydow.

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'The Artist' wins 4 Critics' Choice Awards, including Best Picture and Director

Posted by · 1:51 am · January 13th, 2012

There were few surprises in last night’s BFCA Critics’ Choice Awards, as ‘The Artist’ took home the top two prizes — but there was disappointment for nomination co-leader ‘Hugo,’ which won only a single technical prize.

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Round-up: Lonergan speaks… in the presence of his lawyer

Posted by · 7:00 am · January 10th, 2012

Also: Jennifer Lawrence to announce Oscar noms, and dissecting the DGA picks

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Art Directors Guild nominees include 'Anonymous,' 'Captain America' and 'Drive'

Posted by · 7:12 pm · January 3rd, 2012

The Art Directors Guild and the Costume Designers Guild announced its slate of nominees this evening, and the surprises were few and far between. One of them, though, was the exclusion of “War Horse” in the period category.

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Oscar Talk: Ep. 75 — Critics' picks so far, 'War Horse' box office, PGA/WGA preview, boiling down Best Actress and more

Posted by · 8:00 am · December 31st, 2011

In this week’s Oscar Talk, Kris and Anne discuss the critics’ awards and lists so far, preview the upcoming PGA and WGA announcements and examine the Best Actress race one more time, among many other things.

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Tech Support Interview: The ubiquitous Alexandre Desplat on living his dream

Posted by · 9:52 am · December 29th, 2011

When Tech Support first launched at In Contention five years ago, Alexandre Desplat had proven his talents with top-notch scores for “The Girl With a Pearl Earring,” “Birth” and “Syriana.” Today we chat with him about a ubiquitous year doing what he loves to do.

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