In Contention

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  • OSCAR GUIDE: Best Documentary Feature

    Daniel Ellsberg in The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon PapersThe year’s documentary feature category hasn’t offered up a lot of suspense so far this season. One contender has been a dominant force on the circuit and the nominations, for the most part, lined up accordingly. A lot of the intrigue, of course, is taken out by the mid-season announcement of a 15-film shortlist, which sometimes has its own shockers (as it did this year).

    Voters in this field have to attend screenings of all the nominees, so that can sometimes yield left-field choices that don’t adhere to herd mentality. Then again, there are times when one film is too difficult to ignore. We had a year like that last year and it looks like things are heading that way this year as well.

    The nominees are:

    “Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country” (Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller)
    “The Cove” (Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens)
    “Food, Inc.” (Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein)
    “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” (Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith)
    “Which Way Home” (Rebecca Cammisa)

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  • 2/23 Oscarweb Round-up

    Jeremy Renner• Peter Knegt chats with Best Actor nominee Jeremy Renner. [indieWIRE]

    • Oscar party kits, anyone? With bingo! [Oscars.org]

    • “The Messenger” writers and Oscar nominees Oren Moverman and Alessandro Camon on their process. [MTV Movies Blog]

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  • A glimpse of ‘The Illusionist’

    The highlight of my Berlin trip last week, and handily my favorite film of this still-young year, Sylvain Chomet’s “The Illusionist” merits all the excruciating magic-based puns that critics will inevitably coin for it in 2010.

    To give you an idea of what I’m so excited about, the following Arte.tv video gives a taste of the rapturous animation on offer. (You’ll need to brush up on your French for the accompanying interview.) It’s one of those irritating self-starting affairs, so I’ve placed it after the cut.

    The Illusionist

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  • Double vision

    Thanks to Glenn at Stale Popcorn for pointing me to this Australian one-sheet for “Fish Tank,” which deservedly took the BAFTA on Sunday for Best British Film. The designer is Jeremy Saunders, also responsible for that extraordinary “Antichrist” poster last year … someone Stateside needs to snap this guy up.

    Fish Tank

  • The numbers behind the Academy Awards

    This is a massive graphic, so click on the jump to check it out.  Courtesy of Business Pundit.

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  • Who the Oscars really benefit

    AMPAS headquarters in Beverly HillsPeople get so wrapped in the seasonal mechanics of the Oscars, it’s easy to forget that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences actually has a purpose beyond the doling out of awards. It is, after all, an academy: an nonprofit organization dedicated both to preserving and developing American filmmaking.

    The LA Times’s Christy Grosz offers a handy reminder of what AMPAS does all year round, and how the Academy Awards — with their $65 million license fee from ABC — essentially fund their activities.

    Among the places where that money goes: screenwriting fellowships (Allison Anders and Susannah Grant are previous beneficiaries), college grants, film restoration and archiving of assorted movie memorabilia, with a long-term view toward building a museum of Hollywood history.

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  • Sweet smell of desperation

    Kristen Stewart at the 2009 BAFTA AwardsIt’s almost as if the ratings-hungry Oscarcast producers watched last night’s BAFTA sweep for “The Hurt Locker,” finally accepted they’re going to receive no assistance from the awards, and duly sprung into action.

    Right on cue comes today’s announcement that Miley Cyrus, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner and Zac Efron will all be presenting on March 7. Perhaps if they add Robert Pattinson, they can present the Best Supporting Actress category together, heartfelt individual tributes and all.

    Here’s hoping Stewart practises her smile over the next two weeks. Not even a BAFTA Rising Star award could cheer her up last night.

  • OSCAR GUIDE: Best Music (Original Song)

    Nora Arnezeder in Paris 36Year after year, the original song category tends to prove that something is broken in the music branch of the Academy.  But to be fair, that’s a bit of a half-truth overall, as the original score field has begun to loosen up a bit and allow for newbie talent to get a foot in the door as of late.

    Still, when it comes to voting on the songs with a seemingly arbitrary system, not to mention a rash of rules that feel made up along the way (and overtly subjective at that), the branch certainly makes a given tune earn it with one hell of an uphill climb along the way.  That having been said, the category nailed down a decent slate of nominees this season.

    The nominees are:

    “Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog” (Randy Newman)
    “Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog” (Randy Newman)
    “Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36”     (Reinhardt Wagner; Frank Thomas)
    “Take It All” from “Nine” (Maury Yeston)
    “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart” (T Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham)

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Are we there yet?

    Jeremy Renner in The Hurt LockerIt’s been three weeks since I took note of the season’s course in this space, and really, there has been no need to put our finger to the wind until last week. And frankly, an author making an ass out of himself in public and Harvey Weinstein sooth-saying anyone who would listen (while an array of fluff pieces on Quentin Tarantino buying the New Beverly hit, a year after it happened) made for little more than an opportunity to fill column inches as we all continue to tread water.

    Meanwhile, “The Hurt Locker” has taken the four guilds that truly count, putting it on course for the inevitable. Some are trying to spin the preferential ballot as a non-issue, but that’s just they’re own way of saying they have nothing to write about. And “Avatar” keeps making money.

    I’m frankly more interested in the fact that, as Martin Scorsese’s finest film since “Goodfellas” made its way to screens over the weekend, smart critics all over the country somehow turned off their analytical switch to complain about score volume and heavy-handed stylization, completely failing to realize the inherent necessity of the film’s construction and mise-en-scène in the participatory narrative Scorsese laid out.

    But I’ll save all that for roughly a year hence, when I’ll inevitably be swimming upstream for yet another misunderstood masterstroke from a popular filmmaker many think has received his share of passes. There is an Oscar season still to cover, after all.

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  • 2/22 Oscarweb Round-up

    Harvey Weinstein• Scott Feinberg talks at length with Harvey Weinstein, who had a busy week of Pied Pipering the Oscar bloggers last week. [And the Winner Is…]

    • Presumed costume design frotnrunner Sandy Powell sure is making the rounds.  She sits down with Paul Gaita to discuss the threads of “The Young Victoria.” [The Envelope]

    • David Poland disputes the “Shutter Island” bashing. [The Hot Blog]

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  • BERLIN: ‘The Killer Inside Me,’ final notes

    Casey Affleck and Kate Hudson in The Killer Inside MeHaving named its prizewinners yesterday, the Berlinale officially wraps today. I meant to file my last post on the festival once I arrived home on Friday night, but assorted tasks and distractions kept it on the back burner. Too many things, too many things, as Amber Waves would say.

    My last day in Berlin served up one of the films I’d most been looking forward to, tireless British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom’s Jim Thompson adaptation “The Killer Inside Me.” Winterbottom’s baldly violent noir arrived in town with the embers of its Sundance controversy still glowing, hoping to liven up a staid Competition. Werner Herzog’s jury might not have taken the bait, but many audience members at the press screening I attended did.

    “Fuck you!” yelled one German journo, rather lamely, at the screen once Casey Affleck’s Texan sheriff (and moonlighting serial killer) had finished pummelling Jessica Alba’s lovely face to the texture of steak tartare. After that, obediently outraged grumbles greeted assorted scenes of sex and sadism, while a chorus of boos accompanied the end credits.

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  • ‘The Hurt Locker’ sweeps BAFTA Awards

    Kathryn Bigelow at the 2009 BAFTA AwardsThe writing, in case you hadn’t already read it, is on the wall.

    In the biggest BAFTA haul for a non-British production since “American Beauty” a decade ago, Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraq drama took six awards at the Royal Opera House, including Best Film, Director and Original Screenplay. Next up: Oscars. And plenty of ’em, I’m guessing.

    I did respectably enough in my predictions, nailing 15 out of 21 categories, though I missed the big one, thinking homegrown favorite “An Education” would come out on top. The Brits did, however, vote local in the lead acting categories, with Colin Firth and Carey Mulligan taking well-deserved honors — probably their last of the season.

    “An Education” lost both the top awards it was up for, as the ever-selective Best British Film committee once more looked to the fringes to reward Andrea Arnold’s “Fish Tank” instead. I’m thrilled to see a major award for my #2 film of last year, after it was blanked entirely in the general categories. Continuing a good night for my pet films, meanwhile, “A Prophet” took foreign-language honors.

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: Leonardo leads (Donatello does machines)

    Shutter Island*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio’s fourth collaboration together has provided the former with his biggest debut ever and the latter’s second only to “Titanic.” $40.2 million is the estimate, which puts it a fraction behind “Madea Goes to Jail” from this same weekend last year and means that unless word of mouth is particularly poisonous, it should squeak past the $100 million mark. To do so, it’ll have to perform more like an esteemed thriller than a typical horror film as “Friday the 13th” could only translate a $41.4 million February opening into a $68.9 million total last year.

    Second place goes to “Valentine’s Day,” which suffered a morale-damaging 69% dip from last weekend. The drop was never going to be kind due to the holiday last Monday but only “New Moon” and Ang Lee’s “Hulk” have dropped harder while playing on more than 3,500 screens. I guess audiences decided not to go back and watch it again for all the hidden nuances in the way Jamie Foxx says “Damn!” to something off-screen.

    “The Wolfman” also fell 69% to $9.8 million and fifth place, although that was a bit more expected. It will now be lucky to gross $71 million, which is what it would need to surpass “Teen Wolf.” Maybe if Anthony Hopkins’s character was a bit more like Rupert “Stiles” Stilinksi, Universal could be a little closer to recouping that $150 million budget. Maybe throw in Del Toro doing a handstand on a horse and carriage ride? Just thinking out loud.

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  • UK trailer and poster for ‘I Am Love’

    Back in September, at Venice, I found my senses dazzled and my brain nonplussed by Luca Guadagnino’s “I Am Love” — a fulsomely stylized family melodrama showcasing  yet more marvelous work from Tilda Swinton (in Italian, to boot) over an otherwise undernourished story and ensemble.

    I Am Love

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  • ‘Avatar,’ ‘Basterds’ win with MPSE

    See the full list of winners here.  We covered the sound editing category last week in the Oscar Guide.  I think “Avatar” is still safe to win there, but there could still be a splitting seeing “The Hurt Locker” take sound mixing.

  • ‘Up in the Air,’ ‘Hurt Locker,’ ‘Cove’ win at WGA

    Insert token analysis here.  Longest…Oscar…season…ever.

  • BAFTA predictions

    Carey Mulligan in An EducationEnjoying a curious position this year as the only televised awards ceremony between the Academy Award nominations announcement and Oscar night itself, the BAFTAs will no doubt be relishing their precursor status even more than usual.

    Since they made the move to precede the Oscars nine years ago, BAFTA hasn’t slavishly anticipated the bigger awards (they’ve matched the Academy’s Best Picture pick only three times), but they have sometimes been at the crest of new waves in voting: late surges of momentum for the likes of Marion Cotillard, Tilda Swinton and Alan Arkin all made their first appearance on BAFTA night.

    This year, however, I’m suspecting that the Brits will voluntarily isolate themselves from the Oscar-influencing game. Never ones to shy away from patriotic voting, BAFTA has handed its top prize to a homegrown production for three years running – it’s highly likely that Oscar longshot “An Education,” which leads the nomination count with two U.S. productions, will make it four.

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  • Tell us what you thought of ‘Shutter Island’

    (from left) Mark Ruffalo and Leonardo DiCaprio in Shutter Island

    It’s been a while since we did one of these, and it’ll make a nice distraction from the Oscar season.  Chad has already been pretty candid about what he thinks of Martin Scorsese’s latest, following on the heels of Guy’s review out of Berlin.  But what say you?  Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.