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Dear James, So you don’t think much of the Academy. That’s okay. A lot of us don’t. And after the outcome of last night’s awards — in which capping an inevitable Best Picture Oscar for the safe, stolid stylings of “The King’s Speech” with that extraneous Best Director win for a worried-looking Tom Hooper was [...]
An open letter to James Franco
Posted by Guy Lodge · 4:32 pm · February 28th, 2011
Filed in: Daily
The In Contention Readership Ballot
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:20 am · February 27th, 2011
Today’s the big day. No more Oscar Guide, no more polls, just a few choice hours left in the season and then, the 83rd annual. (And not a moment too soon.) I appreciate everyone participating in the daily polls this month and last, which accompanied each of our Oscar Guide entries. It offers us a [...]
Filed in: Daily
OSCAR GUIDE: Best Picture
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:11 am · February 26th, 2011
And so we come to the end of this year’s Oscar Guide, and the category that has been the cause of more conversation than ever this year: Best Picture. And that can’t be overstated. I can’t recall the last time the debate around a Best Picture winner was so heated, and I’m tempted to say [...]
Filed in: Oscar Guide
The five categories giving me hell
Posted by Guy Lodge · 3:48 pm · February 25th, 2011
With a little over 48 hours until the big night, I find myself in an uncommon state of disarray — my crammed Oscar weekend “To Do” list includes viewing all 15 short nominees in order to make an informed dart-throw of a prediction (stickler that I am, I held out for a theatrical screening), preparing [...]
Filed in: Daily
TECH SUPPORT: Final analysis, part two
Posted by Gerard Kennedy · 8:40 am · February 25th, 2011
Yesterday we began our final look at the 10 crafts categories. Check out part one here. Today, the conclusion. Meanwhile, you can find my final predictions in all categories here. Best Music (Original Score) Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, despite their atypical approach to film music composition, are very much contenders in this race. Having [...]
Filed in: Tech Support
OSCAR GUIDE: Best Actor
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:52 am · February 23rd, 2011
The 2010 Best Actor race looks to end up exactly where it started, making it the most predictable category of the evening. In fact, as of late (save for the two Oscars Sean Penn won), this has consistently been one of the easier categories to call. Generally it seems that there is a clear favorite [...]
Filed in: Oscar Guide
OSCAR GUIDE: Best Film Editing
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:38 am · February 21st, 2011
I’m afraid you’ll find that I’m having trouble getting all that excited about this year’s race for Best Film Editing. How can I when the absolute best editing job of the year (from a true master, no less) was shunned altogether, while a cruel joke was played in the form of “Inception” editor Lee Smith [...]
Filed in: Oscar Guide
‘If I Rise’ music video
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 2:50 pm · February 17th, 2011
One of the earliest installments of this season’s Oscar Guide covered the Best Original Song category. It could be a tight race, though most are betting on Randy Newman (who we spoke to earlier today) taking his second Oscar, for “We Belong Together.” Another strong possibility, especially given its Best Picture nomination, is “127 Hours” [...]
Filed in: Daily
OSCAR GUIDE: Best Music (Original Score)
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:39 am · February 16th, 2011
Recently the International Film Music Critics Association were the last critics group to offer their (specialized) thoughts on the 2010 film year. The announcement made for an interesting counter to the year in score awardage. And the eventual nominees for Best Original Score reflected, if nothing else, a continued break with tradition. The music branch [...]
Filed in: Oscar Guide
2/14 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Remembering 1939, Finke talks to Pascal, Marion Cotillard in ‘The Dark Knight Rises?’
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:28 am · February 14th, 2011
• Patrick Goldstein remembers 1939: “When 10 great Oscar nominees really meant 10 great nominees.” [The Big Picture] • Nikki Finke talks to Sony honcho Amy Pascal in the wake of “The Social Network”‘s post-season stall. [Deadline] • Marnie Hanel chats with “127 Hours” production designer Suttirat Larlarb, with sketches to boot. [Little Gold Men]
Filed in: Daily
Desplat leads International Film Music Critics nods
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:18 am · February 11th, 2011
Alexandre Desplat has enjoyed a brilliant career in U.S. features as of late (on the back of immense talent, naturally). 2010 was a grand year for the composer as he, once again, balanced scoring duties on a number of notable films. Today, the final announcement from the critics awards circuit has landed in the form [...]
Filed in: Daily
OSCAR GUIDE: Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:05 am · February 7th, 2011
This year’s race for Best Adapted Screenplay has seemingly been the most predictable of the year. One script has dominated the precursor circuit and the name behind that script is as worthy as ever given his contributions to the medium over the years. I’m not particularly a fan of this slate. One script is an [...]
Filed in: Oscar Guide
Best Original Song performances are back
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:31 am · February 4th, 2011
The Academy’s Twitter feed just noted the following: You heard it 1st: Best Song performances are back for 83rd #Oscars! Gwyneth Paltrow set to sing…more on the way. To which I say: Great. It was grossly disrespectful, I thought, to suddenly jerk them from the telecast last year (and if you heard some of the [...]
Filed in: Daily
SANTA BARBARA: Ladies love cool James
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 3:04 pm · January 30th, 2011
Last night saw the presentation of the Outstanding Performance of the Year honor to “127 Hours” star James Franco at Santa Barbara fest, and it’s one of the best tributes I’ve seen here. But it didn’t start out that way. Franco was late getting out of Los Angeles, where he was rehearsing for next month’s [...]
Filed in: Daily
TECH SUPPORT: Analyzing the nominees
Posted by Gerard Kennedy · 11:53 am · January 28th, 2011
So the 83rd Annual Academy Award nominations were finally announced this week, and I did fairly well in handicapping the nominees. Outside of Best Sound Mixing, I never missed more than one nominee in a category. Unfortunately, there were no categories where I scored 100% (apart from Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay). Oh well. [...]
Filed in: Tech Support
OSCAR GUIDE: Best Music (Original Song)
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:09 am · January 28th, 2011
The music branch’s process of nominating in the Best Original Song category changed a few years ago. Members now screen clips and view contenders as used within the context of their films. It generally means music used organically has a better shot than the usual closing credits fluff of yore. That rule change has also, [...]
Filed in: Oscar Guide
Young stars speak out on ‘The Social Network’
Posted by Guy Lodge · 11:51 am · January 27th, 2011
Newly minted Oscar nominee James Franco caused a bit of a ripple in the blogosphere the other day by casually slighting “The Social Network” – claiming the film fails to deal with the communication revolution that (to his mind) it’s supposed to be about, and further suggesting that its approach is too “classical” (read: conservative) [...]
Filed in: Daily
My dream Oscar ballot, part one
Posted by Guy Lodge · 1:22 pm · January 22nd, 2011
For the past two years running, I’ve celebrated Oscar Nomination Eve by assembling my own ideal (and, usually, incredibly far-fetched) ballot, so here we go again. As well as a kind of last-ditch prayer to the Oscar gods, I also look on it as a salute to the worthy contenders who haven’t a hope in [...]
Filed in: Daily
