Tag: 83rd Annual Academy Awards
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Jon Stewart offers hosting advice to James Franco
From last night’s “Daily Show.” He refused to skip poetry class at Yale to be available for interviews in New York. Love this guy:
ABC’s promo pics of Franco and co-host Anne Hathaway after the jump.
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Oscar nominations: the good, the good and the good
Even when they aren’t being read out with gale-force enthusiasm by Mo’Nique, the Oscar nominations tend to attack you with breathless speed that you need at least half an hour to decide how you feel about them at all. As usual, this morning’s announcement found me bouncing from one split-second reaction to another: Yay! No! What? That? Why? Who’s missing? What did she say? That? No! Did I call that? Yay!As Kate Winslet would say in such situations: “Gather.” And now that I’ve stepped back, gathered and taken into account that no Oscar nomination slate in history has been without its disappointments, I can honestly say that I’m more happy than not with the list in front of me.
Some of the day’s biggest surprises didn’t elicit much of an emotional reaction from me. My eyebrows rose as high as anyone’s over Christopher Nolan’s latest failure to secure a Best Director nomination — is he the first man in Oscar history to fall three times at this hurdle after being DGA-nominated? — though I always said he couldn’t be regarded as a sure thing.
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Nominations live stream and reactions thread
Alright folks, AMPAS president Tom Sherak and actress Mo’Nique will be announcing the major category nominations in, oh, 20 minutes or so. The full list will be available at Oscar.com immediately after (though sometimes during) that announcement.
I’ll leave this space for your instant reactions and will post up my own extended thoughts shortly thereafter. Anne and I will be doing a four-way Oscar Talk with Peter Knegt and Guy Lodge later this morning, and Guy will circle back later in the afternoon with his extended thoughts on the announcement. But, for now, here’s your playground. Check out a live stream of the announcement (which begins at 5:30am PT, 8:30 am PT) after the jump. More to come shortly.
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THE LONG SHOT: Don’t let ’em catch you caring
(Updated Oscar predictions here. They’ll likely be tweaked once more before Tuesday.)Following the Academy Award season is a little like watching a particularly low-rent TV soap: just as the mindlessness and predictability of the enterprise escalates to a point where quitting seems the only credible option, some or other narrative curveball will lure you back in.
So it was with me this week: after my column last week expressed a weary indifference to the race two weeks ahead of nomination day, along came the Academy to throw me a bone and re-pique my interest.
The bone was, admittedly, a small one — a wishbone, if you will — but it did the job. By shortlisting Greece’s disturbing, tar-black adult fable “Dogtooth” for Best Foreign Language Film, the Academy sent out a reminder to bleary-eyed awards watchers not only that it is still capable of surprising us, but that good films can sometimes endure on their own merits — even if some of them do need an executive committee vote to help them along. (Hey, anyone else starting to think an executive committee for the Best Picture category would be a fine idea?)
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83rd Oscarcast posters revealed
I always look forward to the official poster(s) for a given Academy Awards ceremony. I remember being giddy at the Alex Ross-crafted image (however cheesy “The Gold Knight Returns” might have been as a tagline) from a few years ago. This year we have four “inviting” you to the show. Check them out in full after the jump.
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First Oscar presenters announced
With the big night still over two months away, it’s rather early for us to be thinking of Oscar telecast details, but you can bet the show’s frantic producers aren’t feeling quite so calm about it all. As we speak, Rolodexes and little black books are being frantically rifled through as the list of presenters is drawn up, and today, we were given our first taste of what manner of star power will be joining hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco (still doesn’t sound right, does it?) on stage.No surprise that reigning Oscar champs Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges will be on hand, presumably to present the lead acting awards — the question is whether the producers will stick to the awkward “Logan’s Run”-style five-way presenting scheme they’ve used, to sharply diminishing effect, the last two years running. In the 2008 ceremony, they had the previous winners present their own category: Bridges’ likely repeat nomination this year should prevent that, though it’d be fun to watch him eulogize himself.
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WEEKLY WRAP: Precursors begin, ‘Grit’ unveiled and Oscar hosts tapped
• The biggest news of this busy week may well have been the announcement of James Franco and Anne Hathaway as this year’s Oscarcast hosts.• Unless you count “The Social Network” dominating the National Board of Review as bigger news, that is.
• Or, for that matter, our first look at the Coen brothers’ “True Grit.”
• Speaking of which, Kris reported on the current eligibility status of Carter Burwell’s score (still up in the air).
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OSCAR TALK: Ep. 43 — NBR, Gothams and Spirits, ‘True Grit’ and Franco and Hathaway as Oscar hosts with special guest Peter Knegt
Welcome to Oscar Talk.In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.
Given the indie film announcements of the week, it seemed a good time to bring indieWIRE‘s Peter Knegt back on to discuss those events and add perspective to the usual topics, of which there are plenty. Let’s dive in and see what’s on the docket today…
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Franco and Hathaway to host the Oscars
(UPDATE: Yes, it’s official. Check out the full AMPAS press release after the cut.)
Nikki Finke is reporting over at Deadline that the Academy has asked actors James Franco and Anne Hathaway to host the 83rd annual Academy Awards, and that the pair has accepted the offer. No official word yet and Finke is tossing around “looks like” in quotes, so take it with a grain for the moment. (How does it “look like” someone has accepted something, by the way?)
If true, the duo will follow on the heels of another tandem, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, who hosted for producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman last year. Both Franco and Hathaway have films in the race this year (as Baldwin and Martin did last year with “It’s Complicated”), but in separate titles — “127 Hours” and “Love & Other Drugs.”
Franco is virtually a lock for a nomination this year. So that would be unique to say the least. Fittingly, Finke hedges her bets later in the report by noting, “That might be the main reason one or both of the stars decide to beg off.”
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11/9 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Screenwriting hopefuls, Hooper on fugly ‘King’s Speech’ poster, MPAA shamed
• Sasha Stone on the season’s screenwriting contenders. [Awards Daily]• “The King’s Speech” director Tom Hooper also hates the poster everyone has been knocking. [Movieline]
• David Poland split screens “The Social Network” star Armie Hammer. [The Hot Blog]
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Jackman turns down Oscar hosting gig
With the season now unshakeably upon us, it’s time to dust off the annual conversation topic of who should host the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony. I am prompted to do so, of course, by Deadline’s recent scoop that 2009 host Hugh Jackman — the first choice of new Oscarcast producers Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer — has turned down the gig, owing to a scheduling conflict with the shooting of of “Wolverine 2.”Many will be disappointed by this news, given that the Jackman-hosted telecast was one of the better-received of recent years. As one of its few detractors, I’ll admit to feeling relieved: Jackman’s song-and-dance schtick was amiable enough, but he lacked the comic zeal I prefer in an Oscar host.
To be fair, the balance between comic and cuddly is a difficult one to strike at the Oscars. There’s ample room for error on either side of the beloved Billy Crystal school of sweet-and-sour satire: Jackman played it too safe for my liking, but neither do I want to see an encore of Chris Rock’s hostile, room-cooling barbs. The Academy Awards, as much as we might like to mock them, are effectively the industry’s prom night, and the tone should be appropriately celebratory.
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9/27 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: ‘Wall Street’ timing, Oscar’s love affair with social relevance and a real-life ‘Whistleblower’
• Does “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” have poor timing Oscar-wise? (Or, I don’t know, did it just kinda stink?) [The Guardian]• On Kathy Bolkovac, the real-life whistleblower of Toronto title “The Whistleblower.” [Lincoln Journal Star]
• Andrew Garfield has played “Spider-Man” before, FYI. [Daily Telegraph]
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Back to Monday for Oscar?
Some of our younger readers may think of the Academy Awards as a weekend-capping tradition, having taken place on a Sunday for the last 12 years running. However, seasoned Oscar-watchers will remember the days when, rather than rounding out the week, the ceremony kicked it off, falling on Monday so as not to interfere with the weekend box-office.Now, Variety reports that we may be returning to a Monday night Oscarcast, this time to scoot out the way of the NFL:
The league’s players and owners are negotiating a new Collective Bargaining Agreement that will add two games to the regular season — a decision that could theoretically land Hollywood’s biggest event and the Super Bowl on the same day. The move from 16 to 18 games, according to sources, is a fait accompli and will go into effect for the 2012-13 season.
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Reacting to the Oscars in January
Nikki Finke’s report last night that AMPAS execs discussed moving the Oscar telecast to January spurred plenty of debate from the readership. I thought I’d poke around and see what the rest of the blogging community has to say on the matter.For starters, David Poland is seeing things the way I do [The Hot Blog]:
An earlier vote – nominations on, say, January 11, show on January 30, the week between the NFL Conference Finals and The Super Bowl – would put enormous pressure on the TV show producers… but I have to say… the show has been dubious… and lacking spontaneity. This could help bring it back. It would also keep the parade of award shows from boring the world to tears before the one award show that matters lands.
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AMPAS brass debating moving Oscars to January?
That’s what Nikki Finke is reporting tonight (in the midst of further outlandish bitching about AMPAS executive director Bruce Davis), just hours after a new producer and director were tapped for the ceremony. And it’s obviously a major decision with a lot of moving parts, but let’s consider this.First and foremost, it’s the drum I’ve been banging since the Academy began to get scared about ratings. Quick fix ideas like adding an animated feature film category nine years ago and, of course, beefing up the Best Picture category to 10 nominees have been attempts at opening the door for popular or blockbuster fare. The thinking has been, if popular films are nominated, more people will watch the show.
But that logic has always been flawed at best, a leap of faith that doesn’t address the real reason audiences don’t seem interested in tuning in every March: awards show fatigue.
Not to belabor a point, but again, by the time the Oscars roll around every year, they’ve already been preempted by the Golden Globes, the ever-expanding Critics’ Choice Movie Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, three nationally televised, red carpeted kudofests. The Oscars feel stale, like an afterthought, when they should feel like the gold standard. The only real answer has always been to get a jump on the stiff competition that has developed in the last decade or so. Hey, Meryl Streep gets it!
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Cohen, Mischer tapped as Oscarcast producers
What a novel idea, getting a jump on things. The press release, in part:Academy Award®-winning producer Bruce Cohen and acclaimed television producer/director Don Mischer will produce the 83rd Academy Awards telecast, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak announced this evening. Mischer will also serve as the telecast’s director. This will be the first involvement with the Oscar® telecast for both men, though the two worked together on the Academy’s inaugural Governors Awards event in November of 2010…
“I fell in love with the Oscars as an eight-year-old kid, the night my grandmothers let me stay up to watch for the first time,” said Cohen. “It is a dream come true for me to now be producing the show with the phenomenal Don Mischer, whom I’ve had an incredible time working with in the past. We hope to create a show that celebrates what people around the world love about the Academy Awards year after year – the excitement, glamour and tradition of Oscar Night itself.”
“During my previous collaborations with Bruce, I have come to know him as a passionate, smart and creative producer, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to now be working with him on the Oscars,” said Mischer. “As a producer and director, I have always been inspired by the live broadcast of major, high-profile events and when it comes to that, it doesn’t get any bigger than the Academy Awards. The Oscars are truly ‘appointment’ television, they’re eagerly anticipated around the world, and they offer a unique opportunity to celebrate the extraordinary artists who take us on a journey every time we step into a movie theater.”