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The Academy has added a new twist to the Best Picture category, which was shaken up two years ago with the expansion of the field from five to 10 nominees. According to a late-breaking press release Monday, the organization has elected the field to include anywhere from five to 10 nominees, depending upon what percentage […]
AMPAS shakes up the Best Picture scenario
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 1:29 am · June 15th, 2011
Filed in: Daily
The gift, not the wrapping
Posted by Guy Lodge · 4:36 pm · March 8th, 2010
Like a Tiffany engagement ring presented in a Happy Meal box, sometimes the most beautiful gifts come in really cruddy wrapping. And such was the case with last night’s Academy Awards ceremony. On the one hand, the show managed to delight (if not surprise) me with one of the unlikeliest sweeps in Oscar history, making […]
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OSCAR TALK: Ep. 25 — Postmortem
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 1:42 pm · March 8th, 2010
Welcome to Oscar Talk, a weekly kudocast between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. This is the final installment of the 2009-2010 Oscar season, with nothing left to discuss but Hollywood’s biggest night. On the docket today: • Anne was on the red carpet and in the press area at the show […]
Filed in: Oscar Talk
Forgotten
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:06 am · March 8th, 2010
I don’t know if anyone else felt the same way, but the “In Memoriam” segment last night felt extremely flat to me. It’s not to say that it should be full of flavor and pizzazz. Quite the contrary. But there was just something sterile about the whole James Taylor sing-over same-old that didn’t sit well. […]
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Ratings were up
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:57 am · March 8th, 2010
Despite concern over how the telecast might be perceived, it turns out ratings got a boost this year, according to this Rick Kissell Variety story. Much of that is being attributed to the presence of popular films like “Avatar,” but I think it’s also worth pointing out the role of hosts Steve Martin and Alec […]
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‘The Hurt Locker’ takes 6 Oscars, including Best Picture
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:12 pm · March 7th, 2010
Oh, let’s start with the positive. The irony of the lowest-grossing Best Picture winner of all time coming in a year when the Academy did everything it could (right down to a hopelessly baiting horror film montage) to shove the Oscar telecast toward populist appeal couldn’t be more delicious. Much of the season was deceptively […]
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Academy Idol?
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 3:25 pm · March 7th, 2010
There’s plenty of trepidation about this year’s Oscarcast, a number of industry-ites expecting the worst while, of course, hoping for the best. We’ll know in a few hours, but I got a note today from someone on the inside of all of this that is, well, I don’t know: This change to “And the winner […]
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Guy’s final Oscar predictions
Posted by Guy Lodge · 8:23 pm · March 6th, 2010
And so it comes to this: more months than I care to count of watching, thinking, sweating, fretting, writing, deleting and occasionally not caring boil down to single predictions in 24 categories. There’s a lot to get through here, and I’m not going to delay things with an introduction. Well, except for this one caveat […]
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3/3 Oscarweb Round-up
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:17 am · March 3rd, 2010
• Claude Brodesser-Akner reports that a Sacha Baron Cohen Oscarcast sketch has been nixed to spare James Cameron’s feelings. It was a dumb idea anyway. [Vulture] • Steven Zeitchik on what I’ve been saying until I’m blue in the face: Meryl Streep’s silence has done her no favors during phase two, while Team Bullock continues […]
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Horror at the Oscars
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:53 pm · March 2nd, 2010
No, I’m not talking about the news that Martin Short and Neil Patrick Harris will be opening the show with a song and dance, but this nugget from Bloody Disgusting: While the Academy continues to fail to recognize horror in their prestigious festivities (has it really been 19 years since Silence of the Lambs?), Bloody […]
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2/26 Oscarweb Round-up
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:34 am · February 26th, 2010
• Maria Puente on the wide array of villains represented by the year’s Oscar nominations. [USA Today] • Bill Mechanic tells Sharon Waxman that the Oscarcast will be “emotional.” [The Wrap] • Not movie related, but FYI, Batman’s is still bigger. [Hero Complex]
Filed in: Daily
Shankman and Mechanic on teamwork
Posted by Guy Lodge · 8:13 am · February 25th, 2010
In last Friday’s edition of Oscar Talk, Anne Thompson alluded to something of an elephant in the room regarding the upcoming Oscar ceremony: that curiously matched co-producers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic are “not getting along.” As whispers to this effect continue to circulate around the industry, the pair have clearly aimed to dispel that […]
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Sweet smell of desperation
Posted by Guy Lodge · 12:12 pm · February 22nd, 2010
It’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 […]
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What might have been
Posted by Guy Lodge · 2:25 am · February 20th, 2010
I agree with Anne Thompson in yesterday’s edition of Oscar Talk when she cautiously says that the hosting is one of the few things she’s not worried about in the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony. Steve Martin — tried, tested and funny on two previous hosting dates — is the definition of a safe pair of […]
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OSCAR TALK: Ep. 22 — “All the noise, noise, noise, noise!”
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 1:11 pm · February 19th, 2010
Welcome to Oscar Talk, a weekly kudocast between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. Every week inches us closer to the end of the loudest Oscar season of all time. Today Anne and I sit down and discuss the noise of the week, adding our own noise (we went on a bit […]
Filed in: Oscar Talk
Shocker: Best Original Song nominees will not perform
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:19 am · February 16th, 2010
This is a bit outrageous. Mike Fleming is reporting at Deadline Hollywood Daily that the original song nominees will not be asked to perform the tracks on the telecast: Explanations include that the songs never delivered ratings, and that is what this Oscarcast is all about. That not having the big production numbers will move […]
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Official poster for the 82nd annual Oscars
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:07 am · February 9th, 2010
This has been floating around for a few weeks, actually, but the Academy made it “official” with a press release yesterday. You can head over to the official AMPAS site to purchase the poster if you like.
Filed in: Daily
WEEKLY WRAP: Oscar nomination week
Posted by Guy Lodge · 6:02 am · February 6th, 2010
• Did you hear? The 2009 Academy Award nominations were announced. “The Hurt Locker” and “Avatar” led the pack. • Days before, Kathryn Bigelow nabbed the Directors’ Guild Award — the first woman ever to do so. • Back to the Oscars, we collected reaction statements from 44 of this year’s nominees. • I rounded […]
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