'War Horse,' 'Super 8' win with MPSE

Posted by · 10:09 pm · February 19th, 2012

The Motion Picture Sound Editors’ (MPSE) 59th annual Golden Reel Awards were held this evening, celebrating excellence in sound editing. “Super 8,” you’ll recall, led the way with nominees (as well as with the Cinema Audio Society), yet failed to score an Oscar nod in either sound category.

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'Midnight in Paris,' 'Descendants' take WGA Awards

Posted by · 5:25 pm · February 19th, 2012

Woody Allen took his fifth Best Original Screenplay award from the WGA for “Midnight in Paris,” but with “The Artist” ineligible here, can he beat the Best Picture frontrunner at the Oscars? Meanwhile, “The Descendants” continues to lead the adapted screenplay race.

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'Hugo' sounds great to Cinema Audio Society

Posted by · 6:13 pm · February 18th, 2012

The Cinema Audio Society has made some interesting calls over the years. “True Grit” last season, in the face of blockbuster and eventual Oscar winner “Inception.” “No Country for Old Men” in 2007 rather than the skillfully layered “Transformers” (and, again, eventual Oscar winner “The Bourne Ultimatum”). “Road to Perdition” over musical heavyweight “Chicago” and feast for the ears “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.”

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Digging into the cinematography field

Posted by · 6:34 pm · February 17th, 2012

This has been bugging me. I’d say the two hardest categories to predict this year are, of all things, Best Costume Design and Best Documentary Feature. Guy worked through the former today, while I worked through the latter yesterday. But Best Cinematography is also something I keep circling back around to.

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Oscar Guide 2011: Best Costume Design

Posted by · 4:10 pm · February 17th, 2012

This year’s Best Costume Design category features the two nomination-leading Best Picture nominees, and three films nominated in no other category — including two well-dressed critical bombs. We consider what will win, and what should.

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84th Oscarcast beginning to take shape

Posted by · 10:31 am · February 17th, 2012

With the Oscar telecast just over a week away, details are slowly starting to emerge about what we could expect. And some of the signs point to a celebration dovetailing with one of the year’s unofficial themes at the multiplex: an homage to classic movies and moviemaking.

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Oscar Talk: Ep. 82 — BAFTA winners, live action and documentary shorts

Posted by · 7:57 am · February 17th, 2012

In this week’s podcast, Kris and Anne reflect on last weekend’s BAFTA Awards and analyze the live action and documentary short nominees, among others.

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Round-up: Time to erase the animation Oscar?

Posted by · 6:25 am · February 16th, 2012

Also: Brett Ratner’s act of apology, and Streep’s 2013 Oscar bid

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Oscar Guide 2011: Best Visual Effects

Posted by · 9:34 am · February 15th, 2012

After gradually reducing finalists from fifteen to ten to five, the visual effects branch made room for four blockbusters this year – three of them from franchises – as well as the nominations leader. This is hardly the sort of lineup that could be considered shocking. Still, another Best Picture contender was left off, while the fourth entries in three other franchises came up short, as did one additional summer blockbuster.

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The top 10 shots of 2011: part two

Posted by · 6:58 am · February 15th, 2012

As we inch closer to the Oscar ceremony that will signal the true end of the 2011 film year, we reflect on the best single images captured on film (or digital drive, if you will). Today we wrap things up in the second part of this annual piece, offering up the five best shots of the year.

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Round-up: Scott Rudin joins the EGOT club

Posted by · 6:30 am · February 14th, 2012

Also: Betting against ‘A Separation,’ and some Streep family history

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ASC awards Emmanuel Lubezki and 'The Tree of Life' best cinematography of 2011

Posted by · 8:57 pm · February 12th, 2012

The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) held its annual awards ceremony this evening, honoring achievement in feature film photography.

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'The Artist' cleans up at the BAFTAs

Posted by · 10:36 am · February 12th, 2012

“The Artist” dominated tonight’s British Academy Awards, winning seven trophies, including Best Film, Director, Actor and Original Screenplay, while its nearest competitor, “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” had to be content with wins for Best British Film and Adapted Screenplay.

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MCN's Gurus make their final calls

Posted by · 9:26 am · February 11th, 2012

The Gurus o’ Gold collective of Oscar dorks (yours truly included) at Movie City News have offered up final-ish predictions. I imagine David Poland will give us all an opportunity to change this or that, and certainly, my own picks aren’t final until the Friday or Saturday before the show, but for the most part, these are where the chips lie.

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Predicting Sunday's BAFTA Awards

Posted by · 1:38 pm · February 10th, 2012

The BAFTA Awards take place on Sunday, and offer the Brits the choice between rubber-stamping the Oscar favorite, “The Artist,” and siding with their own pet, “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.” We consider what will win this year — and what should.

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Oscar Guide 2011: Best Sound Editing

Posted by · 8:37 am · February 10th, 2012

The sound categories really were interesting and all over the place this year. In the sound editing field, we have just two of the nine Best Picture nominees represented, one surprise (for some) show for a Cannes hit that was expected to show up elsewhere, a franchise entry that deserves more love than it’ll get and a tip of the hat to a Best Picture snubee that actually showed up in both sound fields.

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John Williams, Michael Giacchino, Chemical Brothers nominated by film music critics

Posted by · 7:37 am · February 10th, 2012

This year’s list of International Film Music Critics Association nominees was predictably dominated by John Williams, who landed seven nominations across the various categories for his two Oscar-nominated scores: “The Adventures of Tintin” and “War Horse.” Not too far back with five nods was “The Artist” composer Ludovic Bource.

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Tech Support Interview: Howard Shore lends aural depth to the visual palette of ‘Hugo’

Posted by · 4:23 pm · February 9th, 2012

The Oscar-nominated composer reflects on this uniquely intricate collaboration with Martin Scorsese.

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