Movieline takes on the Razzies with the Soily Awards

Posted by · 2:42 am · March 13th, 2012

With the Razzie Awards firing at the same predictable targets, Movieline has aimed a little higher with their rival Soily Awards for 2011’s worst achievements in film.

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Box office and Oscar, from 'Deathly Hallows' to 'Tree of Life'

Posted by · 10:21 am · February 26th, 2012

It’s Oscar Sunday and by tonight, it’ll be all done but the cryin’, as they say. But as we gear up for today’s festivities, I thought I’d take a look at the box office of this year’s Oscar nominees for the first time this season.

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No one needs final Oscar predictions this deep

Posted by · 3:36 pm · February 24th, 2012

Well, enough belly-aching over this nonsense. Pick something and move on. So I have.

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Tech Support: Final predictions and analysis for 2011, from 'Hugo' to…'Hugo'

Posted by · 10:25 am · February 23rd, 2012

Final guesses on this year’s crop of below-the-line contenders.

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The Lists: Top 10 Oscar upsets we'd like to see

Posted by · 11:04 am · February 21st, 2012

With ballots due in a matter of hours, we’re in the home stretch of Oscar season. But while some of the races are decided, that doesn’t mean we’re not crossing our fingers for this upset or that for deserving competitors watching the inevitability from the sidelines.

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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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Round-up: Goodbye, Whitney

Posted by · 7:07 am · February 13th, 2012

In today’s round-up, saying goodbye to Whitney Houston, Douglas Trumbull’s plan to save movies and the Academy’s annual Sci-Tech Awards.

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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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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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Oscar Guide 2011: Best Sound Mixing

Posted by · 6:30 am · February 8th, 2012

This is one of the year’s hardest technical categories to predict, largely because the Academy’s sound branch agreed with the Cinema Audio Society on only two nominees. We size up who might win, and who should.

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'Rango,' 'Apes' and 'Transformers' dominate the 10th annual Visual Effects Society Awards

Posted by · 9:53 pm · February 7th, 2012

It was a good night for Industrial Light & Magic at the 10th annual Visual Effects Society Awards, which went down this evening. The company’s work in films like “Rango” and “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” dominated the proceedings, the former surprisingly sweeping the animated categories.

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'Rango' wins big at the 39th Annie Awards

Posted by · 8:39 pm · February 4th, 2012

The 39th annual Annie Awards were held this evening at UCLA’s Royce Hall in West Los Angeles and it was Gore Verbinski’s “Rango” that came out on top.

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Round-up: 'Introducing' VF's Class of 2012

Posted by · 8:45 am · February 1st, 2012

Also: A detractor defends ‘The Artist,’ and Bond is unshaven, not stirred

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Tech Support: 'The Artist,' 'Hugo,' 'Dragon Tattoo' and 'War Horse' feature heavily in Oscar's crafts categories

Posted by · 1:12 pm · January 24th, 2012

This morning, many crafts artists in Hollywood (and elsewhere in the world) found out that they are heading to the Kodak Theatre for the 84th Annual Academy Awards. The thrill they are experiencing must be difficult to describe.

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'Super 8' leads the way with Motion Picture Sound Editors nominees

Posted by · 8:13 am · January 20th, 2012

The Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) used to announce its list of nominees after the Oscars did, meaning the Best Sound Editing category was the one field without much in the way of precursor clues for predicting. That changed recently and now we can get an idea of where the sound branch might lean in the field.

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Tech Support: Wrapping up guesses throughout the Academy's craft categories

Posted by · 1:31 pm · January 19th, 2012

Rounding out my picks in the Academy’s crafts branches, from Best Music to Best Visual Effects.

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Tech Support: Guessing the nominees throughout the Academy's craft categories

Posted by · 7:49 am · January 19th, 2012

In five days, the nominations for the 84th annual Academy Awards will be announced. It seems extraordinary that another season has nearly passed. And with a silent film and a somewhat fantastical (not-so-) children’s film poised to dominate the major categories, one realizes how quickly trends can change in Hollywood. But now it’s time to make our final picks across the crafts categories.

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'Hanna,' 'Pirates' among Cinema Audio Society surprises, 'Transformers' snubbed

Posted by · 4:30 am · January 19th, 2012

And now, as they say, for something completely different. The guild nominations these last few weeks have been rank and file, the usual mish-mash of the same titles reflecting a bit of group think and perfunctory nominations. That ends today, though, as the Cinema Audio Society’s crop of nominees included some eyebrow-raising titles.

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