Features
Headlines
Search
Archives
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 [...]
OSCAR TALK: Ep. 55 — Special Edition! — Oscars postmortem
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 1:03 pm · February 28th, 2011
Filed in: Oscar Talk
OFF THE CARPET: Sun came up
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:11 am · February 28th, 2011
Steven Spielberg couldn’t have put it more concisely during his presentation of the Best Picture category last night. To paraphrase, he noted that whichever films did not happen to win Best Picture this year would join the ranks of numerous classics of the medium. Was it preemptive damage control? I hope not. Why be apologetic? [...]
Filed in: Off the Carpet
TECH SUPPORT: ‘Inception’ dominates below the line
Posted by Gerard Kennedy · 8:47 am · February 28th, 2011
So, the morning after a terrible prediction record at this year’s Oscars, I’ll try to make some sense of what the Academy told us, and what it means for the crafts artists we got to know along the circuit this year. As the evening went on, many people began to wonder if “The Social Network” [...]
Filed in: Tech Support
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
TECH SUPPORT: Final analysis, part one
Posted by Gerard Kennedy · 10:35 am · February 24th, 2011
So this is it. Over the last seven-plus months here at Tech Support, we have tried to illuminate and analyze the craft races as they unfolded. On Sunday, the winners will be revealed, ushering some new faces into Oscar’s club. And indeed, I expect the vast majority of the winners to make their first trip [...]
Filed in: Tech Support
OFF THE CARPET: Heading into the home stretch
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 11:48 am · February 21st, 2011
I’m watching CNN’s report of the on-going situation in Libya as I write these comparably pointless words. The “real world” seems so unique, so foreign after having our head in the awards season clouds since September. Now, six months in, victory lane is a mere six days away. And man, it’s been a marathon. So [...]
Filed in: Off the Carpet
Prediction conundrum of the day
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 11:20 am · February 20th, 2011
You may have heard Anne and I get into it over the design categories in Friday’s Oscar Talk. For costumes, she maintained that the great (and deserving) Colleen Atwood is likely to win for “Alice in Wonderland.” Yet, as best I can tell, the only true fantasies to win the award — ever — are [...]
Filed in: Daily
‘Social,’ ‘Alice’ win ACE awards
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:31 pm · February 19th, 2011
Alright, so I should have gone with what I said was the safe bet for the ACE drama Eddie. Rather than making history by awarding a film not nominated for the editing Oscar and giving it to the truly deserving contender, “Inception,” the editors decided to rethink it and go with “The Social Network” instead. [...]
Filed in: Daily
Predict the weekend in societies
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 6:00 pm · February 17th, 2011
Anne and I will be briefly previewing the American Cinema Editors and Cinema Audio Society awards in tomorrow’s Oscar Talk, and maybe a little Motion Picture Sound Editors thrown in to boot. All three will be announcing winners this weekend, while members of the Costume Designers Guild will put a bow on the guild season [...]
Filed in: Daily
Why some BAFTA winners shouldn’t get their hopes up
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 11:50 am · February 17th, 2011
A number of people asked about the BAFTA outcome in our solicitation for Oscar Talk queries this week. We’ll be discussing last weekend’s awards on the show, but I thought I’d address those questions separately here. A sample: With the BAFTA below-the-line awards not all going to The King’s Speech (even things like Art Direction [...]
Filed in: Daily
OSCAR GUIDE: Best Visual Effects
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:34 am · February 17th, 2011
This year the visual effects branch of the Academy followed the lead of the sound editing category and widened its net to five nominees. It did not, however, follow suit by eliminating the superfluous bake-off process, which whittles the contenders down to seven before deciding on the ultimate slate of nominees. This year the two [...]
Filed in: Oscar Guide
‘King’s Speech’ nabs seven BAFTA Awards
Posted by Guy Lodge · 5:28 pm · February 13th, 2011
I had more interesting things to do at the Berlinale this evening than watch the BAFTAs, so the only commentary I can offer is on the winners list itself. And, well, it doesn’t make for terribly exciting reading. To the surprise of precisely no one, “The King’s Speech” ruled the night with seven trophies, though [...]
Filed in: Daily
OSCAR GUIDE: Best Costume Design
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:31 am · February 10th, 2011
This year’s race for Best Costume Design became mired in controversy later in the season as a dispute erupted over proper credit in “Black Swan.” Amy Westcott was listed as responsible for the threads, but fashion duo Rodarte had a significant hand in concocting the performance costumes on the film — and were denied credit, [...]
Filed in: Oscar Guide
Art Directors’ Guild wins for ‘Swan,’ ‘Speech,’ ‘Inception’
Posted by Guy Lodge · 6:36 am · February 6th, 2011
In a busy night for industry awards, the Art Directors’ Guild also dished out their trophies yesterday. “Inception” claimed its second Guild prize in one night as it triumphed in the Fantasy category — fending off fellow Oscar nominee “Alice in Wonderland,” which would be a surefire winner for “most art direction,” in the process. [...]
Filed in: Daily
SANTA BARBARA: Women in the biz
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 6:20 pm · January 31st, 2011
I really should take the time to write up Saturday’s women’s panel here in Santa Barbara, not least of all because it seems to have been neglected in most outlets. It’s an undervalued annual program, always moderated with class by Madelyn Hammond and featuring some of the most formidable female talents working in the industry. [...]
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
TECH SUPPORT: Final analysis, part two
Posted by Gerard Kennedy · 9:48 am · January 21st, 2011
Yesterday I began a final look at the crafts categories. Today, a look at the four remaining fields: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design and Best Film Editing. BEST ART DIRECTION The precursors of the BFCA, BAFTA and Art Directors Guild have been fairly consistent in citing four titles in this category. Last [...]
Filed in: Tech Support
