Alright, I’m off to the show. Remember, the awards are televised live on VH1 at 9pm EST, 6pm EST. If you haven’t given it a go yet, try your hand at predicting tonight’s festivities. The original nominations announcement can be found here.
Obviously I won’t be around to comment as the winners come down, so feel free to discuss them in this space while I’m gone. And enjoy the show!
Those fortunate enough to have caught John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt” in its original Broadway run were almost unanimous in their praise for it. When Shanley announced his intention to bring the play to the screen — starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Viola Davis, no less — many were skeptical of his ability to transform the very theatrical piece into a cinematic work.
Cinematographer Roger Deakins, production designer David Gropman, costume designer Ann Roth, film editor Dylan Tichenor and music composer Howard Shore all had pivotal roles in making that happen. Shanley, despite his acclaim as a playwright and screenwriter, had only directed one previous feature film. And “Joe Versus the Volcano” is hardly considered a masterpiece of cinema. Deakins nonetheless recalls that the director came to the set with very concrete ideas of what he wanted, and did not come across as inexperienced at all.
“He knew what he wanted to see and turned to me to realize it,” he says. Tichenor adds that, despite having written the play, Shanley was “not overly precious about his work, which was good as we had to cut a lot out.”
Gropman already had a brief history with Shanley, having worked with him on an off-Broadway play in the 1980s. “There was never a moment where experience was an issue,” he says of the director. And while she had not worked with Shanley before, Roth, who also cut her teeth on theatrical productions, acknowledges she could work together easily with him because of their shared background.
“There are some film directors who just use actors as part of visual scenery,” she says, adding that, conversely, theater directors tend to start with the actor and then build the scenery from around him or her.
I’ll refrain from participating here, given that I’m in the BFCA membership, but have at it in the comments section below if you want some space to predict tonight’s winners. I’ll offer up a separate post just before I take off for you guys to discuss the winners, since I won’t be here to comment.
The nominees are here if you need a refresher (and I’ll go ahead and include them after the jump, too, I guess).
When David Carr makes that crack at around the 1:50 mark in this recent Carpetbagger video, surrounded by Gold Derby’s Tom O’Neil and Hollywood Elsewhere’s Jeffrey Wells, I literally choked on my pecans with laughter. I then proceeded to laugh further at Wells’s attempt at debunking “The Dark Knight”‘s Oscar hopes because of its “interminable third act.” But even a fan such as yours truly had to give it to Carr’s comeback quip, “How many times did that sucker end?”
Anyway, the video was shot at the recent New York Film Critics Circle awards and features interviews with Sean Penn, Courtney Hunt, Jenny Lumet, Sally Hawkins and Entertainment Weekly’s Lisa Schwartzbaum. Take a look. And someone give this guy a TV show already.
Guy has already touched upon some BAFTA coverage today. The Brits like to draw out their nominations process as long is possible, and good on ’em for it. You gotta compete in this flurry of awards season announcements.
Anyway, the nominees for the Orange Rising Star award were announced earlier today, and they are:
Michael Cera
Noel Clarke
Michael Fassbender
Rebecca Hall
Toby Kebbell
This is a tough call for me, the toss-up being Michael Fassbender and Rebecca Hall. The former was an absolute sensation in “Hunger,” while the latter is probably the best part of Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” despite Penélope Cruz nabbing the raves. My guess is Hall takes it.
Here’s a bit from the press release:
The Orange Rising Star Award is unique as it is the only Award presented at The Orange British Academy Film Awards to be voted for by the British public. Film fans can have their say by voting via the Orange website HYPERLINK “http://www.orange.co.uk/bafta” orange.co.uk/bafta; or via text. The winner will be announced at The Orange British Academy Film Awards on Sunday 8 February 2009…
Nominees must have featured in a film that has been entered for this year’s Orange British Academy Film Awards. Nominees will have usually already appeared in several feature films in their career so far.
Last year’s winner was Shia LaBeouf, who announced this morning’s nominees.
I think we’re locked and loaded, folks…
David Fincher, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Christopher Nolan, “The Dark Knight”
Ron Howard, “Frost/Nixon”
Gus Van Sant, “Milk”
Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
What more is there to add at this point? This is where John Shanley needed to show up if there was any more hope for “Doubt.” This is where Darren Aronofsky needed to stake a claim if there was any Best Picture juice in “The Wrestler.” Ditto Stephen Daldry and “The Reader,” I guess. But with this, I think the consensus has become overwhelming and a bit difficult to ignore.
I have to give props to Bill Ramey, better know as “Jett,” and the hard work he’s been putting into Batman On Film for well over a decade now. This is the kind of fan Christopher Nolan and company set out to apease to a certain extent when they marched into this franchise less than 10 years removed from its own crashing and burning at the hands of Joel Schumacher. Those were choppy waters, but now the sea is calm. And Bill keeps doing his thing. Check out his 2008 year-in-review piece for all the Bat highlights of the year. It’s a nice bit of reminiscence to say the least.
(I meant to have this up yesterday but I totally forgot. My bad.)
Thanks everyone for participating in the “Benjamin Button” contest from Monday. I’ll be sifting through all those haiku entries to surmise a winner over the weekend. Today, however, you all have a shot at winning a copy of “The Dark Knight: Featuring Production Art and the Full Shooting Script,” one hell of a dazzling hardcover collectible that you’d better believe is on MY shelf. (Check out the Amazon page here.)
I’ve got one to giveaway, however, so let’s have another contest!
This one is going to require a little more effort on the part of the readership. Here’s your chance to show me how much of a Bat fan you really are. Send us a photo demonstrating your Bat-fanaticism — decked to the nines in Bat regalia, perhaps, or simply surrounded by all of your Bat paraphernalia. And of course, you don’t have to have some big Bat collection to prove your fandom. The more creative the better. Something that simply tells me, “Woah, this person is into the Bat.” Go all out — you only live once.
Send all entries to ktapley@incontention.com. We’ll post the winning pic here next week. Have at it!
(And check back tomorrow for our final contest of the week, featuring “WALL-E” goodies!)
• Patrick Goldstein waxes on about why he thinks “WALL-E,” “The Reader” and “The Wrestler” will be Oscar losers (for Best Pic). [The Big Picture]
• Peter Bart observes Oscar campaign “combat fatigue” at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. [Peter Bart]
• Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard talk to KCRW’s Jason Bentley. [KCRW]
• David Carr does some pre-DGA speculating. [The Carpetbagger]
• Tom O’Neil takes a stab at predicting tonight’s Critics’ Choice Awards. [Gold Derby]
• While a few online mag staffers take a stab at the Globes. [Premiere]
• In praise of Clint Eastwood’s…face. [Slate]
• Xan Brooks wonders what the point of the People’s Choice Awards is. [The Guardian]
• Rebecca Hall gets some much-deserved ink across the pond for popping up on the BAFTA Best Newcomer shortlist. [Daily Telegraph]
• Howard Feinstein talks to “Man on Wire” director James Marsh. [indieWIRE]
• John Horn on the perils of high-brow cinema in the marketplace. [Los Angeles Times]
• Esther Walker says “Revolutionary Road” will change the obscurity of Richard Yates. [The Independent]
• Kevin Maher talks to Liev Schreiber about the action hero redefining of his career as of late. [The Times]
I remain perplexed as to why they announce these separately from the main field of nominees (why further ghettoise a ghetto category?), but oh well. The BAFTA nominees for Best Film Not In The English Language are:
“The Baader Meinhof Complex”
“Gomorrah”
“I’ve Loved You So Long”
“Persepolis”
“Waltz With Bashir”
Hardly surprising, though you’d think the dismal UK reviews for “The Baader Meinhof Complex” might have put them off a bit. Better options out there, folks… I’m just sayin’. (I’m not sure whether “The Class”‘s late-February release date made it ineligible, but in any case, why has this masterwork been so sorely overlooked this awards season?)
Can’t really complain about the rest. You know where I stand on two of them in particular, while I’m glad to see “Persepolis”‘s distant UK release date hasn’t caused the film to slip their minds.
…in every single category it was nominated in (er…maybe not). Anyway, bravo.
The five contenders for the 2009 Cinema Audio Society (CAS) Awards are:
“The Dark Knight”
“Iron Man”
“Quantum of Solace”
“Slumdog Millionaire”
“WALL-E”
So this is the second “Defiance” snub that has surprised me so far, following Eduardo Serra coming up short with the lensers earlier today.
“The Dark Knight,” “Iron Man” and especially “WALL-E” were certainly expected, but the show of support for “Slumdog Millionaire” indicates the deep industry love this film has going for it. I wouldn’t necessarily expect this to translate to a Best Sound Oscar nomination, given the fates of films like “Finding Neverland,” “Crash,” “Babel” and “Into the Wild,” Best Picture frontrunners that scored with CAS but missed with AMPAS (though “Wild” is something of an anomaly there).
Then again, “Slumdog” is a much more craftily conceived piece of filmmaking than those efforts. I thought the sound was amazing, personally. So perhaps this could be the first year since 2003 that the guild matches the Academy’s picks 5/5.
The inclusion of “Quantum of Solace” is particularly interesting, though. “Casino Royale” had a solid showing in the 2006 guild circuit, scoring with the art directors, costume designers, sound editors and even the visual effects artists. But the mixers in the CAS gave it the cold shoulder where a lot of us thought the film had its best shot. That the Society would tip its hat to the sequel is somewhat telling, I’d say.
With that in mind, I’d be tempted to predict this quintet for Oscar as well. The only Edward Zwick movie to miss a CAS nomination and turn up in the Academy’s tally was “Legends of the Fall” in 1994. So there is still hope for mixing legends (and branch favorites) Anna Behlmer and Andy Nelson. But the duo also have two other contenders in play: “Australia” and “Cloverfield,” which might be leaving their colleagues with too many choices.
There are a number of other possible surprise nominees in the mix, all of them featuring respected sound mixing talent. Add to the aforementioned “Australia,” “Defiance” and “Cloverfield” (my pick for the best work here in 2008) “Body of Lies” and “Valkyrie,” and you’re still looking at a number of possibilities. And let’s not forget another Best Picture frontrunner, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” strong in this arena in a number of sequences. But I would have expected a mention here if it was in the cards for Oscar.
Like I said, this is a smart list to bet on, with “Defiance” as the spoiler.
A best pic nomination for Wall-E would be a rare honor for animation in general, but it would also be a long over due rarity for another reason: Wall-E would only be the second best pic nominated film in the history of the Oscars to be set in the future. The only one to date is A Clockwork Orange. When you consider how many nominees are period pieces (I didn’t care to count), this represents a massive bias on the part of the Academy. It’s clear that they love the past, but they hate the future.
So says Spout Blog writer Kevin Buist in a smartly realized item. Buist goes on to note seven futuristic AMPAS snubs, but I’m still hung up on the statistic. Really? ONLY one? How bizarre. Considering “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Metropolis” have permanent fixtures on my list of the 10 greatest films of all time, it’s just one more reason for me to be pissy at the Academy.
Get with the program, people! Not that I’m advocating for “WALL-E,” mind you. But it is an intriguing stat.
Original Screenplay
“Burn After Reading” (Ethan Coen, Joel Coen)
“Milk” (Dustin Lance Black)
“Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (Woody Allen)
“The Visitor” (Thomas McCarthy)
“The Wrestler” (Robert Siegel)
Adapted Screenplay
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Eric Roth; screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord; based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
“The Dark Knight” (Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan; screen story by Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer; based on characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics; Batman created by Bob Kane)
“Doubt” (John Patrick Shanley; based on his stage play)
“Frost/Nixon” (Peter Morgan; based on his stage play)
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Simon Beaufoy; based on the novel “Q and A” by Vikas Swarup)
Documentary
“Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story” (Stefan Forbes, Noland Walker)
“Chicago 10” (Brett Morgan)
“Fuel” (Johnny O’Hara)
“Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson” (Alex Gibney; from the words of Hunter S. Thompson)
“Waltz With Bashir” (Ari Folman)
So, the lesson? “The Dark Knight” is in this thing for real now. As I said last night, this was going to be the real test. “I wanted to see what you’d do. And you didn’t disappoint.” The rest of the adapted screenplay nominees will likely translate to Oscar 5/5, but I somehow doubt the Coen brothers will turn their guild mention into an Oscar berth. Remember, the WGA likes comedies, so “Burn After Reading” was always going to have a leg up here.
More love for “The Wrestler,” and though it’s not entirely unexpected, I must say it was a pleasant surprise. And we all figured Thomas McCarthy would find love with the same group that nomianted him for 2003’s “The Station Agent.” He may or may not translate that into an Oscar nomination, but it’s certainly a good possibility.
And remember, animated films are not eligible, so “WALL-E” still has a shot at sliding in. Maybe. It is, indeed, the most critically acclaimed film of the year, but it’s a slightly different case than “Toy Story,” “Finding Nemo” and “Ratatouille,” I think.
Biggest snub: “Rachel Getting Married” (very odd, but frankly, a welcome exclusion)
Needed this one bad: “In Bruges” (the studio is trying hard); “The Reader” (that Scripter nod might have provided elevated hopes)
Anyway, I think Christopher Nolan’s DGA nomination is pretty much in the bag tomorrow. I’d be tempted to call the Best Picture five a done deal after that, but we must always remember “Almost Famous and “Being John Malkovich,” two films that landed nominations from the PGA, DGA, WGA and a grabbed a SAG ensemble mention, yet failed to make into Oscar’s Best Picture five. And “The Dark Knight” didn’t even get the SAG Ensemble nod, so “Doubt” is still lurking. It ain’t over yet.
This is terrifying in so many ways. But I want one of those masks.
So, with SAG, PGA and ASC out of the way, and with WGA still to come in a matter of hours, I guess it’s worth mentioning that the big daddy guild is announcing tomorrow: the Directors Guild of America (DGA). Now’s as good a time as any to take a stab at guessing the nominees…
The DGA has been one hell of an Oscar Best Picture barometer for the last decade or so. Last year was the first real hiccup as the guild only nailed three of the eventual five nominees with their director choices. 2006 saw one misfire (but we all still figured “Dreamgirls” was in around this time two years ago). Then it was four years in a row five-for-five until we have another hiccup, Ridley Scott making it in for “Black Hawk Down” and Christopher Nolan (in the mix again this year) for “Memento.”
After that, the general trend was four-for-five with some 100 percents thrown in here and there, but you get the picture. This is, more often than not, quite the prognosticative (that’s so not a word) guild. With the PGA clearly establishing a consensus of sorts (not that those five films haven’t been the obvious contenders for weeks upon weeks), I see no real reason to get creative right now, so I’m going with the following:
David Fincher, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Christopher Nolan, “The Dark Knight”
Ron Howard, “Frost/Nixon”
Gus Van Sant, “Milk”
Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
There are only two filmmakers that I think have a shot of cracking this quintet: Woody Allen for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and, perhaps more so, Darren Aronofsky for “The Wrestler.” John Patrick Shanley and “Doubt” showing up would truly shock me and Andrew Stanton is not eligible for “WALL-E,” so the field is rather thin.
What are you thinking?
Just got off the phone with the WGA press office and they told me noon on the website for the nominations announcement. If they land before then, someone must have an exclusive, but that’s the info I have, so sleep it off for another two hours, folks.